Run Away Mutants
by Alesford
Summary: A reposting of the original version of "Runaway Mutants". This is the story of a young woman fleeing her home to find safety, acceptance, and tolerance with her friends at the Xavier Institute.
1. Author's Note

Author's Note:

To those of you that have stumbled upon this fanfic: this is the original version of the newly uploaded "Runaway Mutants". Originally titled "Run Away Mutants", this fanfic was started in 2003 when I was just twelve years of age. While I believe the quality of writing reflects this, the endeavor itself was enjoyable and resulted in a complete (if not entirely coherent) story.

I am re-posting this original version to illustrate the contrast between my twelve-year-old past and my nineteen-year-old present. This repost will take place in a single upload with chapter breaks noted by bold headers, author's notes, and disclaimers. I have not edited or changed anything (including the author's notes and disclaimers) from what they were when initially published. Any mistakes are the fault of my twelve-year-old self.

Disclaimer:

I do not claim ownership of any X-Men or Marvel characters, nor do I own any trademark or copyright items mentioned within this story. All original characters belong to me.


	2. Run Away Mutants

Title: **Run Away Mutants**  
Category: Movies » X-Men: The Movie  
Author: Alesford  
Language: English, Rating: Rated: T  
Genre: General  
Published: 01-09-04, Updated: 03-06-04  
Chapters: 18, Words: 31,448

**Chapter 1: Runaway Mutants**

"Oh shit!" she said as she jumped backwards out of her chair. Her music had been moving, but as soon as she jumped back it settled down in a completely different place that was not her music stand. Julie had been staring at her music contently when the notes on her paper began to move around on the page. As she jumped back her hands flared up surrounded by fire. "What the hell is going on!" with a brief pause she continued, "No, no! This can't be happening!" With those last terrifying words she grabbed her backpack and ran out the band room door. Following behind her was her crush, Paul, and her friend, Hannah.

"Julie wait up!" they said simultaneously as she ran out the back door and out of the school. Julie snatched her keys out of her backpack and hopped onto her motorcycle.

"Julie, we're coming with you!" Paul said with an, _I need air_, voice. When she was just about to drive off he screamed, "I'm a mutant too! My parents kicked me out last night after I froze my dad's tea accidentally! Everything I need is in my backpack. This backpack." Julie turned around and saw that both of her fellow classmates had their backpacks.

"I'm a mutant too! My parents don't know!" Hannah blurted out. "I can control metal! Watch." The other keys in her pocket flew into her hand. "See?"

Her family wasn't necessarily bad, but they didn't believe in mutants and that was what she now was. They had a medium sized house compared to the rest in the neighborhood. Everything, the walls, floors, and furniture, were as white as snow. They were a rich, very religious family and they bought her the things she wanted, mostly vehicles and technology things like computers. Julie was an average high school student, at least until today. She always kept two of her "rides" at school and rode the other home. She had a red Honda Nighthawk 750, a motorcycle, and two a red Honda Reflex ABS, scooters. You can tell she liked the color red.

She threw the other set of keys to Paul. They each hopped onto a separate scooter and followed Julie out of the parking lot. After cruising for about ten minutes they stopped in front of Julie's house.

"Hannah go to your house and pack stuff up, I know that your parents probably won't be pleased to know your mutants since nobody is. Take only what you need. Paul, since you already have all of your stuff, come inside the house."

She unlocked the door and ran downstairs and grabbed a duffle bag. Julie ran back up the stairs and started throwing her favorite clothes onto her bed. She had some underwear, socks, pants, shirts, and a couple pair of shoes. As she was folding up the clothes she noticed Paul was standing in the doorway. "Paul, you know you can go find something to do. Grab some food and put it into that backpack of mine. Just throw out all the stuff in the big compartment except the book." Paul did as he was told and got three bottles of water from the fridge, bread, fruit roll-ups, nuts, and oreos to stuff in the bag. "Could you also get my toothbrush and toothpaste, stick it in a bag, and put in the bag?"

"I would be glad to," Paul replied to her bossy commands. He liked her when she wasn't so bossy and that was usually all the time. He could see the reason she was packing everything so quickly. The police might come looking for all three of them and they couldn't be caught.

The doorbell rang. Paul went to open the door to find Hannah with a duffle bag stuffed to its fullest. Like Julie she also had a full backpack. "It's Hannah," Paul said just to let me know who it was even though I could've guessed it. Hannah came in and set her stuff down. Both Paul and Hannah plopped onto the living room couch as Julie came in.

"Ready to go?" They hopped off the couch to answer her question. "I think we should leave St. Louis. I hear that there is a mutant school in Westchester, New York. We could drive there, staying at hotels and motels whenever needed. I've got plenty of cash. I've been saving up for college and I know you have to Hannah. By the way laws are changing to exclude mutants, I don't think we are going to get to go to college. Hannah, you and I will pull out about $200 each. That should get us far. I personally think it would be too risky to try and catch a bus or plane and I'm not going anywhere without my bike," Julie said with a kind of arrogant confidence.

"Fine with me, I have nowhere else to go," Paul said.

"Same here," Hannah replied.

Hannah and I attached our duffle bags to our vehicles and swung our backpacks onto ourselves and Paul did the same with his backpack. After finally packing up we drove off east, towards Illinois leaving our beloved home a memory.

**Chapter 2: Welcome To Mutant High**

Disclaimer: I don't own any part of X-Men just the ideas in my head. Go ahead and sue me if you think I did something wrong. I only have about $8.12.

Please Review, my first real fanfic if you read my first one, which I removed.

After hours of driving they came to Peoria, Illinois. It was probably 11:30 P.M. by the time they pulled into a Motel 6 and were completely wiped out. They rented a room for the night and Hannah and Paul plopped down on the two beds and Julie sat in the chair.

"Julie, I can't believe we're actually doing this," Hannah said worriedly. She wasn't usually pessimistic, but this time she had an excuse. They were heading almost half way across the country where almost everybody but a mutant hates mutants. "Somebody will find us you know. How do you know we'll be safe there?"

"Because I knew I was a mutant before that day in band. I talked to Mrs. Lauer, my biology teacher. She's a mutant too. She told me that mutants are safe there. They have protection." She paused before continuing, "I didn't tell you this before because… Well, I don't know why I didn't. Mrs. Lauer contacted the headmaster, Professor Xavier. She said that we should get out of town and go to Chicago, that the professor would send somebody to get us. To go to Washington Park Court and there we would find them. People who are willing to help us. Other mutants."

"Okay. Less traveling and I guess we can trust Mrs. Lauer," Paul replied with an unsure tone.

"I guess it's okay with me if it's okay with you two," Hannah said with the same unsure tone. After that little conversation they hit the sack. Hannah got one bed, Paul got the other, and Julie got the chair.

They slept until about 10:00 and awoke with a loud, "GET UP YOU SLEEPY HEADS!" It was Hannah. She wanted to get to Chicago soon. She didn't feel safe driving on the roads even though she was seventeen and Paul and Julie were sixteen. She just had a bad feeling, though she told herself it was just because they left home. They were mutants on the run.

"All right we're up!" Julie said with Paul getting out of bed right after Julie got up. They put their socks and shoes on and brushed hair and teeth (They hadn't bothered to put on their pajamas). By 10:30 they were out the door.

Julie, Paul, and Hannah hadn't eaten since lunch the previous day so they ate the oreos and bread that Paul had packed along with a couple fruit-roll ups. After eating they were on the road again.

Julie thought she was handling herself very well considering she had a crush on Paul. She thought they were becoming more like friends than acquaintances. So with those thoughts they drove off northeast to Chicago.

Two rest stops, one lunch break, and three hours later they arrived at Washington Park Court in Chicago on the motorcycle and two scooters.

"So when are they going to be here?" Hannah asked curiously.

"Actually, I don't know," Julie replied.

"You idiot!" Paul screamed. At that moment a giant black jet landed and a ramp opened that led inside. Julie rode her bike up the ramp and into the aircraft. Paul followed her with Hannah not too far behind him.

Paul saw two women standing in the cockpit area. "I presume you are the two mutants sent to pick us up."

"You would presume right. Is there anyway you can leave those here?" The woman with the white hair asked pointing to the vehicles.

"No," Julie replied. "Those are mine and they are coming with us."

"Okay…" She replied to the teen's sudden rudeness.

Hannah butted in, "Excuse her. She's a little touchy and we have been driving for a while."

"She isn't normally that arrogant," said a familiar voice. It was Mrs. Lauer.

"Mrs. Lauer, what are you doing here?" Paul and I asked simultaneously.

She replied as if she knew that was coming. "Well, after you three left, the principal had a mutant scan for EVERYBODY. So you guys left just in time. They found out I was a mutant and called the professor back and asked him to come get me. That's how I ended up here. We've been waiting for ya'll all day."

"Gotcha," Hannah said.

The other lady, red headed with brown eyes said, "Could you please take a seat? And I'm Jean Grey and that's Ororo Munroe, but she goes by Storm. Debbie or Mrs. Lauer already told us your names. So you don't have to introduce yourselves. She said that you, Julie, are actually rather shy at school, but I guess you're totally different outside of school."

"Not totally different, but I'll kick ass if I need to," Julie said as all of them took their seats. With those words they took off. To the students' surprise it took them very little time.

"Do you want me to show you where the garage is?" Jean asked.

"Sure." Julie, Hannah, and Paul got on their scooters and motorcycle and followed Jean out of the jet. Julie and Paul had spotted the garage and raced toward it when something slowed their vehicles.

"What the hell?" Julie said.

No racing, especially down here and we don't talk like that here. You can in front of the adults and other teens but not the younger students.

"You're a telepath and telekinetic?" Julie asked.

"How do you know what they're called?" Hannah asked with Paul giving me the same questioning look.

"I'm telekinetic along with pyrokinetic."

"Oh, I see."

"Yeah."_ No prodding Jean. _Julie thought as she turned to look back at Jean. All three teens parked their vehicles in the garage. Hannah and Paul through the keys back to Julie.

"Keep 'em. They're a gift," she said to her friends. Storm and Jean were walking towards a door. It was an elevator door.

"Come on, you have to meet the professor. You'll be going to school here, but not anytime soon," Storm said.

They reached a large door and stepped into the room. It was an office and inside the office sat a bald man in a wheel chair. "Welcome to the Institute. I am Professor Xavier. Let's start off with an introduction." After he introduced all the teachers he had the children introduce themselves and their mutation if they knew it.

Paul went first. "I'm Paul Roth and I can make ice and freeze things."

Hannah went next, not wanting to go last. "I'm Hannah Mugg and I can control metal, kind of like a magnet."

"I'm Julie Brown and I am telekinetic and pyrokinetic."

"Welcome Paul, Julie, and Hannah. Paul, Bobby Drake is down in the game room. He has the same mutation as you. Hannah, sorry to say, but there is nobody here with the same mutation as you, but my friend Eric Lensherr does. Please do not speak with him as he is the leader of our enemies. He leads the Brotherhood. Julie, Jean is telekinetic as you already know and the boy right outside the mansion burning grass is John. He is also pyrokinetic but cannot create the fire as you can. That is for the introduction. Storm, please show the ladies to their rooms and give them a tour. Scott, do the same with Paul please." Professor Xavier looked like he was finished. "Oh yes, Scott, if you run into our little Pyro, tell him that he needs to see me about burning our lawn."

Jean, Scott, and Storm showed them the way out and up the stairs to their rooms. They were right next to each other. Each room had a closet, dresser, bedside table, and a bathroom with a shower. The teens walked into their rooms and started unpacking.

**Chapter 3: Jean Therapy**

As they were touring the house Julie tripped over a coffee table. Jean asked worriedly, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Julie replied with a harsh voice.

"Very independent are you. I know what has happened to you. I know you've been beaten, that you put it behind you and try to forget about it," Jean said to Julie with her back to her.

Julie turned around sharply, "That is none of your business! I work by myself, I am better alone. I like being by myself." She stormed back to her room to find Mrs. Lauer waiting for her.

"You wanna talk?"

"No," Julie replied as she walked into her room and sat on her bed. "I can't talk to you. You're my teacher, I can't call you Deb, it's too weird."

"Yeah, I was, but I'm a mutant like you. I'm hydrokinetic," she said sitting down next to her former student. She was creating a waterball showing her mutation to Julie. When Julie saw this she too showed her mutation, her favorite mutation anyways. Julie created a fireball to match the size of Mrs. Lauer's waterball.

She felt like she was starting to open up and when that happened, she got hurt. Julie extinguished the fireball and got up and walked to the door showing the exit. Mrs. Lauer got off the bed and walked out.

Once Mrs. Lauer left, Julie went and laid on the bed. _What was I thinking? Opening up to somebody, letting them know stuff about me, it only leads to trouble. Hurt. I can't trust anybody._ With those thoughts Julie got off her bed and made her way to the garage.

She heard a noise, "Who's there?"

"Hey. I'm Logan," the man said. He sounded gruff. "Your bike?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Just wondering. It's nice. Hey you shouldn't be out this late," Logan said.

"No," Julie replied.

"Fine then," the man said as he walked into the mansion. As soon as Logan entered the institute he met his crush, his secret love, Jean. "Hey! Who's the new kid?"

"The one on the bike that's leaving the bike right now?" she asked just for clarification even though she knew who it was.

"Yeah."

"That is Julie. I thought you'd like her. She's very bright, but she's very stubborn."

"I noticed the stubbornness, but why do you call her bright? She rides a motorcycle."

"Because, she likes science. She wanted to be a marine biologist when she got out of college. You know I teach biology and physics."

"Oh."

Julie started thinking to herself. _Where am I going? What am I doing? I've got nowhere else to go and they were being so nice to me. Nicer than anybody else and I shoved it back in their face! I should go back._ She turned around and sped back towards her new home. It was like 3:31 A.M.

When she got back to the mansion, she parked her motorcycle and snuck back up to her room to find a fired up Scott and a calm-looking Jean.

"What the hell do you think you were doing? There is a curfew. There are rules here that you must follow!" Scott said looking enraged. "Your first night here and you are already sneakin' out!"

Jean snapped at Scott, "Scott! SHUT UP! There is no need for this. Go check on Paul, he was very upset the last time I saw him. Julie, you know that Paul was worried about you. He thought you ran away."

"So?" she replied arrogantly.

"So, you like him. You're glad he was worried."

_Stop prying! What is in my head is private!_ Julie thought. She may not be telepathic, but Jean was and she was telepathic and would pick up her thoughts.

"You won't tell anybody what is going on! You need to move on with your life! You are a mutant! There is nothing wrong with being a mutant! You learned to control your powers but you don't like them! MOVE ON!"

Julie charged at Jean. She started punching and punching. She felt contact, but she was hitting nothing. Jean had put up a force-field around herself. After minutes of punching, Julie finally stopped and collapsed on the floor crying.

"Sorry I was so mean. You had too much anger inside and you needed to let it out. I had to get you to let all that anger out," Jean said as she sat beside the crying Julie. Her black hair with red highlights were gleaming in the light.

"Thanks."

**Chapter 4: The Nickname Game**

Jean stood up from the light gray carpet and walked to the door. "If you need to talk, just call me."

"You know I won't."

"Your too stubborn," she said as she left through the door closing it with her telekinesis. Julie was impressed with her telekinesis. Jean could stop two vehicles, a motorcycle and a scooter, and not be worn out. Julie could just move a book across the room. Even though she didn't want to admit it, she thought Jean was pretty cool. She wanted her powers to grow to be that strong.

Julie got off the floor and opened the door with her telekinesis and walked out closing it with her telekinesis. She walked over to Paul's room. "Julie! You didn't run away! I thought you wouldn't come back." There was another figure in the room. It wasn't Scott. He was a little shorter, a dirty blonde with blue eyes. "Come on in. This is Bobby Drake. He calls himself Iceman sometimes." Julie sat on the chair near the door.

"Nice to meet you Iceman," Julie said shyly. She thought he was pretty hot even though Paul was cute enough for her. As the three of them started up a conversation another boy walked in. He had brown hair and brown eyes. He was about the same height as Bobby.

"Hey another pyro. Awesome! I'm John, John Allerdyce," he said in a James Bond voice. "You can call me pyro." He pulled out his lighter and made a string of fire. Sending it one from hand to the other. Julie couldn't resist not upping him. She made a string of fire without a lighter. "Show off," John said with a grin.

Julie held out her hand for him to shake. "I'm Julie Brown. I guess I need a nickname too." John reached out for her hand.

"Oh shit!" John grabbed his hand right after he made contact with Julie's.

Bobby looked at John, "Finally somebody who's hotter than John." He continued in a baby voice, "Is our wittle Johnny hurt? Does he have a boo-boo?"

"Shut up Iceman!" He turned his attention to Julie. "You're a little firebug aren't you? I've got a nickname for you, Firebug."

Julie turned her head to Paul. Simultaneously they said, "No." Julie continued, "We'll think of something. Paulie needs one too. Anyways, it's too late, it's almost 4:20 A.M."

"Ok. Tell us what you guys decided on tomorrow at breakfast."

"Jean, do you think it's safe for Julie and Paul to be hanging out with John and Bobby. You know Bobby, John, and Rogue have been sneaking off a lot lately," Scott said as he and Jean got ready for bed.

"I think Julie can handle herself and Paul, I have no idea."

"Whatever you say."

After they all had gone back to their rooms both Paul and Julie had taken out notepads. They had wondered if they should wake up Hannah and tell her what had gone on and decided not too. Paul and Julie were trying to come up with nicknames. Paul was bored and needed something to do (He couldn't sleep) and Julie just wasn't tired.

Julie started off her list with Firebug even though she hated it. She continued on with the list. _Firestarter, Firefly, Lighter, Flame, Match,_ were all of the names she could come up with. Then it hit her, Phoenix. Phoenixes were mythological firebirds and she liked that name. She also had come up for Hannah. Julie's nickname was Phoenix and Hannah's was going to be Magnet.

Paul was having just as much difficulty as Julie had had. _Icicle, Mr. Freeze, Icedude, Snowman, Popcicle, Frosty were the names he came up with and they _were all so crappy. Finally he gave in and picked Icicle, which he thought was the best of them all. After deciding on a nickname they finally went to sleep at the time of 4:56.

Two hours later somebody was shaking Julie. "Get up sleepy head. First day of fun! It's Saturday! You have to meet Rogue and Kitty. They are really nice." Julie sat up. It was Hannah. She had a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. She stopped in the middle of a sentence. She had found the notepad Julie had been writing nicknames on. "So, you were coming up with nicknames for yourself and I see you also came up with one for me."

"Yeah Magnet. Like it?" Julie asked.

"Yeah Phoenix, I do. Paul's coming in here once he gets ready. Take a shower and get ready for the day. Storm says that breakfast is in an hour," Hannah said. Julie got up and out of her bed grabbing some clean underwear and a clean set of clothes. She walked over to the bathroom. Hannah could hear the shower starting. "You finished getting ready?" Paul had just walked into Julie's room. He was wearing cargos with a football jersey and a white shirt underneath.

"Yeah. Let's go downstairs and wait for her down there."

"I hear Bobby and Rogue are having a foosball tournament."

"Sure are." Paul and Hannah headed downstairs after they left a note on Julie's bed telling her that they were.

Just as Bobby scored the winning goal Julie came walking down the stairs. She had a pair of Abercrombie cargo pants and red polo shirt.

"Hi, you must be Julie. I'm Rogue and this is Kitty," said the girl with the white streak of hair. She stuck out a gloved hand. She must've known what Julie was thinking because she said, "It's my mutation. I suck people's life forces and if it's a mutant, I take their power for a little bit too. It only happens when they touch my skin though."

"So, Kitty, what's your power?" Julie asked turning to face the other girl.

"I can walk through walls. I sometimes call myself Shadowcat. I hear you have a nickname too. All of you do."

"Phoenix," Julie said.

Following Julie's lead Paul said, "Icicle. Bobby took the good name."

Hannah said, "Magnet."

"Cool," Kitty said. "Rogue's nickname is just Rogue. Her real name is Marie."

"Just don't call me that," Rogue said sternly.

**Chapter 5: Saturday Fun**

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but this story and my ideas. Some credit goes to my friend Susan who is really no help at all, but I thought she might like her name up here.

A/N: This has nothing to do with Jean turning into the Phoenix and then the Dark Phoenix. I just like the name. Also, I haven't had anybody to proof-read it, so please post if you find any mistakes which I bet you will. Just to let you know since I didn't say this before, these characters are based off of me, my friends, and teacher. My friends keep asking me to put them in the story so I'll be adding them one by one if I feel like it. So please read, enjoy, and then REVIEW!

They all heard Jean's voice from the kitchen. "Breakfast!" All of the students walked towards the kitchen. There was an assortment of foods on the table. "You can eat in your room if you want. Here we don't really care where you eat," Jean said to Paul, Hannah, and Julie. There were English muffins, toast, muffins, pancakes, waffles, and other breakfast foods on the table.

"Hey, let's go back up to your room Julie," Paul asked.

"Is my room where everybody goes? Oh well. Sure, why not. John, Bobby, Rogue, and Kitty you are welcome too," she replied.

"Awesome. We'll meet you outside the kitchen," said Bobby. John, Bobby, Rogue, and Kitty already had full plates. Julie grabbed an English muffin, which she slathered in butter, and a blueberry muffin while Paul did the same. Hannah wasn't shy about eating. She was starving so she grabbed a couple waffles, a boiled egg, and a piece of toast. Paul and Julie stared at her.

"What? I'm hungry!" she said defending herself. They all started walking towards Julie's room after they met up with their fellow students. All six of them were trying to ignore Hannah's mountain of food (A/N: that's a lot for me anyways). Once they got to her room, each student grabbed a place to sit. Hannah was sitting on the floor, Julie was on her bed along with Paul, John was sitting in the corner chair, and Kitty, Bobby, and Rogue were also sitting on the floor.

"Do all the rooms here look like this?" Hannah asked curiously.

"Pretty much," John replied switching his attention to Julie. "I hear you have a motorcycle. Did you know Scott's into that stuff too?"

"I'm not into mechanics and yes I did know that Scott liked that stuff. I'm not stupid ," she replied sarcastically.

Rogue interrupted John as he was about to speak. "Yeah we know your not stupid. I actually have heard you're looking forward to Jean's classes. She's probably the hardest teacher here even though she doesn't mean to be mean." John leered at Rogue and she immediately stopped. John had never gotten used to Rogue. She had taken Bobby, his best friend, away from him. Though once Julie arrived, he didn't really care. John liked her cocky attitude and her ability to manufacture fire, which he could not do.

John continued with what he was going to say before Rogue interrupted him. "I was thinking about going to a movie tonight. Anybody wanna go?" This question actually seemed to be directed to Julie more so than to anyone else.

Kitty was the first to answer, "Sorry. Remember, Jean's having that test and I need to study. Ya'll should too 'cause your grades are worse than mine."

Bobby was next to reply, "So what? I'm in. I don't care about those grades. I'm passing aren't I?"

"Same here," Rogue said.

Julie searched Paul's face for an answer and found one. "We're in. We don't start classes 'til Monday. What are we seeing?"

John told her, "Doesn't matter. How about Matrix Revolutions? It just came out."

"Fine with me," Julie said. "Anybody else care?"

"Nope," Bobby and Rogue said simultaneously after they exchanged looks.

"When do we leave?"

"Actually, I think I'm going to stay here and just hang out," Hannah said.

"Show's at 7:15 tonight," John said ignoring Hannah and with a mouthful of scrambled eggs.

"Chew first, then talk," a voice said from the doorway. It was Jean. "How do you expect to pay for everyone? The person who invites is supposed to pay. Anyways you should study. Kitty's smart to stay and study." She was joking, but John didn't catch on.

"I don't know," John said with egg once again in his mouth. Everybody was giggling at John's lack of smartness.

"She's joking John. We can pay for ourselves," Paul said.

"Oh yeah. I knew that," replied John.

Julie told him, "No you didn't," before anybody else could. Jean looked unimpressed with the teens' immaturity.

"How about you guys stay here. We're letting the teenagers practice in the danger room since you guys are so eager to train. Especially since one of you keeps going in there to play around," Jean said. Kitty blushed upon hearing this.

"Hey John, that sounds more fun, I'm gonna stay here," Julie said.

"Me too," Paul said.

"Same here," Rogue said.

"I guess we will too," Bobby said. He acted disappointed even though he wasn't. John mirrored Bobby's behavior.

"Head downstairs an hour after dinner," Jean instructed them.

All of the students nodded and got up. John asked politely, "Julie, would you like me to take your plate downstairs?"

"Sure," she replied.

As the rest of the group was heading out of her room, Jean came and sat down. "You know he likes you. Anyways, there's a new girl that's coming to the mansion. I'd like her to be your roommate. Her name is Susan Bay. She can talk to animals telepathically. I thought you would be an okay influence on her."

"I know who she is. I went to school with her. When is she getting here?" Julie asked.

Jean answered her question, "Right about know." Susan appeared in the doorway.

"Hey Jules! Long time, no see. I got caught with that stupid mutant detector at school. I hear Mrs. Lauer is also here along with Paul and Hannah," Susan said.

"Why didn't you go pick her up?" Julie asked.

"Storm did and why aren't you as shy as you used to be?" Jean asked.

Susan butted in, "Hey where's my bed?"

"Scott's bringing it up later. Logan's helping, but he's not too happy about it," Jean said. "Just set your stuff down and you can unpack later. I think John and Bobby are outside, Kitty and Rogue are in the library, and Paul's right outside the door waiting for you. I think that Hannah took her scooter for a ride."

"Okay. Susan, you wanna go outside and join Bobby and John? You should meet them."

"Sure." Susan set her stuff down and Julie and her started towards the door.

"Can I join you? I have nothing to do. I think they're having a power fight," Jean said.

"Fine with us." All three of them headed outside. Just as they exited the mansion Bobby was freezing one of John's fireballs. They were being pretty careful. Just as John relit his fire a bird pooped on his head.

"Susan, did you do that?" Julie asked.

"Sure did."

John looked over at them. "You must be Susan Bay, the animal person. So, you gals gonna join us?"

Julie engulfed her hands in fire to answer his question. Quickly, John threw his flame at Susan when Julie lured the flame to her. John tried to pull it back, but because of her ability to manufacture power and just overall strength, he failed.

"Thanks Jules." Susan was one of the only people to call her Jules.

The mutant war continued. It ended up being girls against boys. Julie would intercept John's flame and throw it back at him. Susan would get the squirrels and birds to attack them by dropping nuts and pooping on them. Jean would give great bursts of energy every once in a while, knocking Bobby and John onto their asses. Finally, John created a fire flag waving it. He was surrendering. Bobby was wiping the bird crap from his face. Luckily, it was right before lunch and they could go eat.

"Hey where's Paul?" Julie said.

"He's up in your room watching us," Jean said.

The five of them continued to the kitchen. It was set up the same way as breakfast was, an assortment of lunch items. After they had filled their plates to their liking, they hopped onto the furniture in the game room. They were all exhausted. Paul joined them.

"Hey! Cool! We tired out Dr. Grey!" Bobby said.

"Yeah you did and I think you wore yourselves out too," she replied.

John said panting, "I guess we did."

"You know that this is what we were planning tonight in the danger room. Mutant wars, just for fun you know. Nobody should get hurt. All of the teachers and eligible students who wanted to come are going to be there," Jean said.

"That'll be awesome!" Julie said.

"Yeah, but too bad there will be no animals in there. My powers will be useless," Susan replied sadly.

Jean commented, "This is actually to see who would make a good X-Men member and being an X-Man doesn't mean always using your powers. Learn how to fight with your hands, you could try karate."

John excitedly said, "We get to be with the X-Men?"

"Who's the X-Men?" Julie asked.

Paul answered the question since Scott had already told him. "The X-Men are mutants who use their powers for good. Kind of like mutant police. That's what the jet is for. They call it the Blackbird."

"That is right," Jean said. Julie looked to Susan then to Paul and then to Hannah who had just walked into the room.

"Hey Susie! I thought I heard you were here," Hannah said continuing on in a secretive voice. "So, what's your power?" She was trying to be funny even though she wasn't. None of them thought she was. John answered for Susan.

"She can talk to animals and she had birds shit all over us!"

"Well, I bet you deserved it," she replied noticing the little white spots in Bobby John's hair.

**Chapter 6: Mutant Wars**

A/N: I don't know much about the danger room and I'm not even sure how long this story is going to be. SO please don't bother me about the danger room and my lack of X-Men knowledge in places. The reason I'm not sure how long it's going to be is because I'm writing it just cause I'm bored and have kind of gotten into it and it's also one of the stories that could never end. I hope it will cause my friend, Susan, keeps pestering me about finishing it. Thanks for reading so far. PLEASE REVIEW!

Disclaimer: Just repeating it, I don't own any part of X-Men except the ideas in my head. So if you throw me lemons I'll just throw them back at you and let them squirt in your eyes. Anyways, I don't own anything that you would want. I'm a thirteen-year old kid who likes X-Men a lot but hasn't read the comics which translates to: I don't have any money.

"Hey! It's almost 6:45! We need to get down there or they're gonna start without us!" Julie screamed into each one of her friend's rooms. Slowly, one by one, Paul, Hannah (she decided to join them), Rogue, Kitty (she also decided to join), Susan, John, and Bobby came out of their rooms. Mrs. Lauer was also heading for the elevator to the lower level. "Mrs. Lauer, are you joining us?"

"Sure am," she said holding the elevator door open. "Hurry up so I don't have to hold this thing all night." All the students ran into the elevator, which was big enough to hold them all. "Hey, where is the danger room anyways?"

"Just follow me," John said. So they all followed John until they reached a big door. "Here we are." They entered a room that was rather large. They had filled it with stuff for Susan and Hannah who need things to use their powers. There were dogs and birds for Susan and metal that Hannah could use.

"Welcome you guys," Storm said.

Scott continued, "As some of you may know…"

"We are having Mutant Wars tonight," Jean finished. They spread themselves out away from each other and the rest of them followed. "Get ready, get set, start!" Blasts, fire, jumping, metal, animals, ice, and other things were flying across the room. Dodging and fighting, they were having the time of their lives. John pulled out his lighter and started throwing a stream of fire across the room at everybody. Julie caught the fire, which was thrown at her, Jean blocked it, Kitty phased through it, Scott, Susan, Hannah, and Rogue dodged it, Paul and Bobby froze it, Mrs. Lauer counter-attacked with water, and Storm drenched it with a storm she concocted. John gave up with that method when Julie engulfed her body in flame.

Just as she was going to throw a fast fireball at Bobby Mrs. Lauer hit her with a waterball. It felt like she had just been shot. Julie never like swimming or cold showers, it was like her body rejected it. She flew back and hit the wall, still conscious she said, "Shit that hurt!" Her flamed up body had gone out. She had landed on her leg funny and it was probably broken. Julie tried to stand up, but she failed and fell back down.

Jean yelled, "STOP! Timeout!" She ran over to Julie, "Are you okay?"

"What does it look like?" she replied.

"I think because of your fiery mutation, your body rejects cold water or water that's not burning hot. So stay away from cold water," Jean said.

Mrs. Lauer came running over, "You gonna be okay? Sorry about that. I didn't know that would happen."

"None of us did," Julie said with Jean helping her to her feet.

Jean continued, "Let's get you down to the infirmary so we can let that leg heal. It is broken." Jean went to medical school and is pretty much the school doctor. So with Julie leaning on her and John, Paul, and Mrs. Lauer following behind them they made their way to the infirmary. Scott continued the war in the danger room. "You're going to have to stay here for a little while since I have to cast it and don't even think about trying to use your powers to fix your leg."

"I won't," Julie said. "Paul, John, go back to the fun. Don't stay here on my behalf. That goes to you too Mrs. Lauer." She thought is cute that John wanted to stay. Julie actually started to like him more than Paul.

"Okay," Paul and Mrs. Lauer said as they walked out of the room.

John told them, "I'm going to stay here for a while. Want to play catch?"

Julie replied, "With what?" John pulled out his lighter and made a fireball and threw it to Julie. She threw it back to him and this went on for a while as Jean was casting her leg. Finally, Jean got so worried that they were going to burn the house down that she used her telekinesis to throw the ball into the sink extinguishing it in the water.

"You're going to burn the house down if you keep doing that," Jean said as she finished with Julie's leg. "Don't think that just because of this you can skip class Monday," she said playfully. "John, why don't you help her to her room." Jean handed her a pair of crutches. Julie stood up with John's help and made her way to the door when she turned around.

"Why can't I have a wheelchair? They're cooler and more fun."

"Because, well I don't know. If you want a wheelchair there is one over there in the corner." Julie looked over there. "It's manual though."

"So," she said as she made her way to the wheelchair and sat in it. She used her telekinesis to hand the crutches back to Jean. She and John started for the door as Jean was cleaning up the mess she had made.

John opened the door and Julie wheeled out. John asked her, "Do you want any help? I can push you."

"No thanks, I can do it just." They got to the elevator and made it up to her room. Professor Xavier was in there.

"Julie, tomorrow we are having a water fight and I don't think it would be wise if you attempted to play even if we have a _No Powers_ rule. I also don't think you should be in the pool unless it's heated really well. You know how hot your showers and baths should be so just be cautious of what happened tonight." He started for the door and as he passed Julie he said, "I like your wheelchair." Julie realized that it was almost identical to his.

As soon as Professor Xavier left, a sweaty Bobby, Kitty, Rogue, Hannah, Susan, and Paul entered her room.

The first thing Hannah said was, "Cool wheelchair," as she lured it to her with her mutation. It was made of metal after all.

"Well, we just wanted to check on you," Rogue said.

"Yeah, we need to go take showers, see ya tomorrow," Kitty said. It was late at night and time for bed.

"I have to go do the same," John said leaning down and giving her a kiss. Julie was in shock. His lips were so soft and so caring, which was unlike his fiery attitude. He left her room. She couldn't deal with thinking about it right now so she went over to her drawer and pulled out some clean clothes and set them on the bed. She didn't know if the cast was waterproof.

Julie wheeled her way out of the room, using her telekinesis (she's been practicing) to open and close doors. She found Jean in her room that she shared with Scott. "Jean, is this cast waterproof?"

"Sure is. No shower would be horrible wouldn't it?" she said.

"Thanks, 'night." Julie wheeled back to her room and rolled into the bathroom. She remembered what the professor had said and made her shower extra hot, which was very refreshing. After she got out and put her dirty clothes into her laundry basket, she pulled out all of the stretchy, wide, pants she had and put them in her closet for easy access. She had already found out that getting clothes over a cast was not an easy task.

Julie pulled out a book and got into bed. Her leg was hurting even though she was immobile. She turned off all lights except her bedside table and began to read. She finally started to tire and set her book down and turned out the light and went to sleep.

**Chapter 7: Blockbuster Beach Fun**

A/N: I need help deciding who to put Julie with, John or Paul; the bad guy or good guy. I'm not sure, please post, I can't decide! Also, I think this might be one of those stories that lasts forever, sorry if you don't like these, but it will keep going until I can think of a way to end it.

Disclaimer: Just read previous chapters.

P.S.: Thanks to ALL of my reviewers. I've never had this many reviews! Thanks sooo much and keep reviewing. Especially those who have reviewed more than once. It is nice to know that people are reading my story! Thanks again! Also I'm having trouble with this next chapter, so beware it might be a while before the next one is up.

Julie awoke to John's smiling face. "Morning. I brought you breakfast." He had a tray in his hand with two fried eggs and a piece of toast. John handed the tray to Julie.

"Thanks," she said as she started to cut up the egg. She was really starting to like John.

"Susan was in here earlier, but she got tired of waiting for you to get up."

"What time is it?" Julie asked.

"9:45," John said.

"Shit it's late."

"Yeah it is. Keep eating." He noticed she had stopped eating. After she had finished he set the tray on the floor. "You wanna go rent a movie later? We can stay here and watch it. Jean and Scott are going to be out all day and Kitty is studying. I think Paul, Hannah, and Bobby are down in the game room.

"So why'd you bring me breakfast?" Julie asked. He just stared at her. He knew she knew that he liked her. He never answered and never had to. John picked up the tray and left closing the door behind him. Julie got out of bed and grabbed her crutches that Jean insisted she have since she couldn't go everywhere with her wheelchair. She pulled out an outfit and started to get dressed. Once dressed, she hooked the crutches onto the wheelchair and made her way downstairs. Pyro had joined Bobby and Paul. Rogue was reading a book about cells quietly on the couch. Julie guessed it was for Jean's test.

"Hey!" she said.

"Hey yourself," Rogue said. Susan and Hannah walked in from outside.

Susan asked before Hannah could, "You feelin' any better?"

"Much," Julie replied.

"That's good," Paul said. Bobby had just beaten him at foosball. Julie was quite flattered that two boys were in love with her, but she loved both and didn't know who she liked better. John seemed more willing to express his feelings, but he was also a very naughty boy. Paul on the other hand, was the total opposite. He was more shy, but a very nice boy. Julie would have to think it over.

"What ever happened to Logan?" Hannah asked.

Rogue said, "He went somewhere. I don't know where though."

"Oh."

Bobby was next to speak, "We're taking Jean's car to the city. She gave us the keys for today. It can accommodate your wheelchair. Wanna come? You know you can't drive your motorcycle with a broken leg."

"Sure, I'll come," Julie said, along with Paul, John, Rogue, and Susan. Everybody that said they'd go started piling out the door and towards Jean's car. John helped Julie into the car since she was the same size as Paul who couldn't help her. Instead, he folded up her wheelchair and put it in the truck along with her crutches. Once everybody was settled and buckled up, Bobby drove off towards New York.

"You know, I've never been to New York," Julie said.

"You're kidding me," Susan said. "I've been here so many times I can't remember."

"Us too," Rogue said answering for John and Bobby also.

"I haven't been either," Paul said.

"You're in for a fun time. We'll go to Liberty Island, the beach, and then shopping!" Susan said.

Bobby replied to Susan's statement, "What she said but no shopping. Shopping is boring. You girls can go, but us guys aren't. We'll go to find other entertainment."

"Okay," Rogue said.

"I'm not really into clothes shopping either. If it's electronics or technology then I'll go," Julie said.

John said immediately, "Yeah, clothes shopping sucks. Anyways, they just re-opened the Statue of Liberty after what happened last year."

Rogue continued stroking her white streak of hair, "Will they even let mutants anywhere near there?"

"Yeah. Remember that I got caught with one of those stupid mutant systems. Let's just go to the beach. They won't charge us to get in anyway. We can hang out on the boardwalk," Susan said.

"Sounds like a plan. I don't wanna get sent back home or some stupid mutant juvenile hall," Julie said.

"Same here. My parents think I'm at prep school. They don't even know I'm a mutant," said Bobby.

"They'd take away my lighter and that can't happen. The doctor dudes would probably want to dissect us," John said calmly.

"Okay. To the beach!" Bobby said in a Napoleon voice. They spoke no more and headed toward the beach. Luckily they had brought plenty of money and they each had a bathing suit underneath their clothes and a towel for later. When they finally reached the beach they parked and hopped out of the car. John helped Julie out of the car and Paul helped her onto her feet. They were going to drive her insane if they kept sucking up.

"Thanks you guys," she said trying to keep a straight face. They were sucking up so much she was about to laugh. The group of teenage mutants went and sat down on the beach on their laid out towels. The boys took off there clothes revealing their swimsuits and ran into the water.

Bobby yelled, "Come on in! It feels great!" Once Susan was in her swimsuit, she and Rogue ran into the water. Rogue didn't take off her clothes because of her mutation. She had an extra change of clothes.

"Jeez Bobby! You make the water freezing!" Susan said shivering.

"Paul's the same," Rogue said. Then she screamed bloody murder.

"Gotcha!" It was John. He had grabbed her leg and scared her half to death.

"Damnit John! Don't do that!" she screamed in his face after he surfaced.

"Don't worry about sharks or anything else. I've cleared the area of animals except dolphins," Susan said when they all realized how far they were out. The group started swimming back to shore and hung out at knee-deep water.

Julie was happily watching when Bobby splashed water towards her. Luckily she blocked it with her telekinesis. Paul exclaimed, "Are you trying to kill her? You know she can't get in water unless it's like boiling! What were you thinking?"

"Sorry Paul, I forgot," Bobby replied sincerely.

John was next to talk. "Well don't forget again. You okay Julie?"

"I'm fine keep having fun." She was actually very bored. It was probably four in the afternoon and she wanted to go home. "Hey actually, ya'll wanna go. It's getting kind of boring here. Let's go rent a couple movies and go home."

"Okay. I guess we kind of forgot that you can't get in the water and that takes all the fun away. I'm not trying to rub it in," Rogue said.

"Here Jules," Susan said helping Julie up. John, Bobby, Paul, Rogue and Susan, semi-dried off and got dressed. In Rogue's case it was putting on dry clothes over her soaking wet ones.

They all got into the car and stopped at Blockbuster on the way home. Julie and the gang rented Matrix and a couple other movies. Luckily, when they got home, Jean and Scott had gone out and Storm and the professor were retrieving some kids new to their mutation. They had the television all to themselves.

Kitty came in from the kitchen and told them, "Don't even think about staying up late. Julie and Paul start classes tomorrow and you don't want to make them fall asleep." She was leering at John and Bobby.

"We aren't going to keep them up," Rogue said innocently.

"Yeah, we just wanna watch a couple of movies," John said.

Kitty replied, "Just go to bed before three. Classes start at eight."

"Okay!" Bobby said. He was tired of her pestering them to study and pay attention in class. They turned out the lights and started watching Matrix and then after that, they watched the other movies. Rogue and Bobby were the first to go up to bed at about 11:30. Paul left about a half-hour later. John and Julie were the only two left.

"So. Do you like Paul?" John asked. He stared at her hoping for the answer he wanted.

"Yeah," Julie replied. John frowned a small frown. "I used to have a crush on him, but I don't know. Sometimes I think we're just acquaintances and other times I think we might be more, but I'm not sure."

His frown dissipated, but was replaced with a blank canvas that she couldn't read. "Oh," was all he could say.

She replied to his short answer, "Well, I'm going to bed," and she left him on the couch, maybe heartbroken or maybe full of hope. John watched her walk away. Julie was so beautiful. She was small but strong in many ways. He loved her hair that was black and turning brown because of her red highlights. He loved her, Julie.

**Chapter 8: A Tale of Two Classes**

A/N: X-2 is never going to happen and I'm not sure where I'm leading a relationship that you'll hear about in this chappie. Sorry I haven't done much with Paul, Hannah, or Susan in a while. It's just hard to incorporate so many characters. Those of you that have read this far, thanks sooo much and please review. Even if you haven't anything to say, please just post so I know how many people have read my story. I'm working hard on it right now, or at least trying to so please read.

Disclaimer: I'm a lazy ass and I don't feel like re-writing any of it. Just look on previous chapters if you wanna read it.

John got up and turned off the television and slowly walked up to his room. He was heartbroken, but he still kept the faith. The teen believed he had a chance and with those thoughts in his mind, he went to bed.

The next morning Julie and Paul once again awoke to Hannah's shouting. "Get up! We have classes today!" She was walking back and forth, room to room, shouting in their faces.

Paul asked still half asleep, "What time is it?" He yawned.

"Six. Get up, it's time to wake up." Hannah was now in Julie's room and had an annoying way to wake her up and get her out of bed. She grabbed the sheet and yanked it from beneath Julie and led her tumbling to the ground.

"Screw you! It's too early! I wanna go back to bed!" Julie said from under a pillow.

Paul walked in sleepily. "Too bad, she's not gonna let us." He was already dressed but his shirt was inside out and on backwards. There was a giggle coming from the doorway. Julie grabbed her crutches and stood up and hobbled over to her closet to grab some clothes.

"You guys are going to wake up the whole mansion," it was Mrs. Lauer. She was already dressed but apparently not fully awake, and you could tell this by the giant thermos of coffee in her hand. Jean was next to her, though she looked wide-awake and full of energy and life while the rest of the room acted like zombie slugs.

"I'm going to go get dressed," Julie said as she went to the bathroom to change since there was a gathering of people in her room. Once again it turned out that her room was the meeting room. After she was done getting dressed, she walked over to Jean who was laughing at her because she also had her shirt backwards. Julie fixed it without having to take it off and put it back on and then she used her telekinesis to throw a book at Jean.

"Unfair, anyways, you know I'm stronger than you," Jean said with a grin.

"Not uh, I'm stronger," Julie replied.

"We'll just have to test that theory in class today," she said as she threw the book back at Julie who was making a fireball. Julie threw the fireball at Jean even though if it did hit her it wouldn't hurt her at all, but before it could even get remotely close, Mrs. Lauer had doused it with a waterball.

"Morning Buddy!" Susan said as she came in and sat on the bed.

"Morning Buddy," Mrs. Lauer responded. Susan nicknamed her Buddy although she always thought Mrs. Lauer hated her. Actually the name Buddy came from one of Susan and Julie's friends from school who was named Sarah.

Julie cut in on Hannah's sentence just as she started it. "What is this? Meet in Julie's room?"

"Sorry," everybody said and they all left and passed John on their way out. He walked in and looked at Julie who stood up to meet his sly glance. Even without being telepathic, she knew what he was thinking. He was looking at the ceiling, and when he finally met her eyes, he knew the answer to his question. She liked him more than Paul and that is what her eyes said. Julie had chosen John and not the boy she had a crush on.

He started to leave and doing so he whispered, "Thanks." She nodded and headed downstairs after him. It was already 7:00 and she needed to eat breakfast before class started. Julie figured she would go and eat breakfast and then go sleep on the couch for about a half hour and finally head off to class.

When she got downstairs, Hannah and Paul were in a deep conversation while Jean and Mrs. Lauer were eating and sipping coffee or juice quietly in the game room. She saw Scott reading the paper while Bobby was sitting with Rogue, Kitty, and John eating a pile of waffles.

Bobby was the first to notice Julie's presence. He smiled and asked her, "Sleep well?"

She responded with a tired face, "Okay, but I only got like six and a half hours of sleep since General Mugg woke me up at o-six hundred hours."

A scream came from the neighboring room, "I heard that!" Hannah was screaming at her.

Kitty said ignoring the screaming, "I told you not to stay up late."

Paul butted in, "No. You told us not to stay up till three because we had class today. By the way, what order are your classes?"

Julie answered, "Biology, mechanics, gym, English, and chemistry." Paul looked at a sheet of paper as she read these off of her hand.

"I have chemistry and biology with you. Luckily they are your favorite classes," he said grinning.

She questioned looking at Scott, "Where's Storm?"

He glanced up from his paper to reply. "She is on a retrieving mission with Professor Xavier, so you won't be having English today. None of the teachers want to teach it or could teach it."

Rogue replied, "So that's where they've been and that's why it hasn't been storming so much!"

"Good observation Einstein," Kitty said. They all had noticed John wasn't talking at all, just eating and staring at his food. "You okay John?"

John looked up, "What? Oh yeah, I'm fine." He got up and put his plate in the sink and entered the door, which led to the gym.

Bobby said, "P.E. isn't really physical education, it's the danger room."

Scott jumped in, "Which you will not be participating in."

"Okay," she said acting upset even though she wasn't. She gave Rogue and the others a look that said it was time to go. They all got up, put their plates into the sink slowly and walked out of the kitchen.

As soon as Julie exited the kitchen, a dictionary was flying at her head. Luckily, she caught it as she ducked before it could nail Paul right in the face. She sent it speeding back with her telekinesis while it was also on fire. Jean once again caught it with her telekinesis.

Holding the book still, Jean said, "Deb, would you do the honors?"

"Gladly." She made a small waterball and put the fire out once again only this time it steamed.

"Jean, you shouldn't be attacking somebody who is on crutches," Julie said waving her right crutch at her.

She leered at her playfully and told her, "Whoops! I guess I didn't read that rule." Mrs. Lauer and Rogue were giggling.

Julie snapped at Rogue, "Shut up. I could kick you ass even with a broken leg."

Jean looked at her, "Remember what I said when you first got here."

"Well there aren't any little kids around here, so I guess it's okay," She said remembering that cussing was bad if it was in front of the younger students. "I'm gonna go get my bag. I guess I didn't get my nap." She wobbled her way up the stairs to grab her backpack that now contained pencils and a reading book. None of the teachers had given her textbooks, yet. Julie made her way back down and into Jean's classroom. Paul was already in there along with Jean and Mrs. Lauer. "What are you doing here Mrs. Lauer?"

"I'm going to be helping Jean since I was a science teacher. Also, can you stop calling me Mrs. Lauer? You call Jean and Scott by their first names."

"I guess I'm just used to calling you Mrs. Lauer because you were my teacher." Julie took a seat next to Paul. Once again another book was thrown at her. "What the hell is up with flyin' books?"

Jean told her, "It's your textbook and I count, hell, as a bad word. So don't use it." The other students started filing into the classroom. As soon as they were all seated she said, "Welcome. Tonight's homework is going to be page 413. It's on cell reproduction. Today, we are going to have fun. Julie and I need to decide who is the stronger telekinetic. We are also going to have contests today using powers. If you would rather not participate, you may go to sleep or work on your homework. So Julie, if you would come up here." She patted the desk she was standing at. Jean slid off one of her plain metal rings and said, "This is the rope as if it were tug-o-war. Julie, keep pulling it from me until you can't pull it any longer, proving me as the victor. Mrs. Lauer, please toss the ring into the air straight up from the middle of both of us."

The ring was tossed and Julie tugged at it and pulled at it with her telekinesis while Jean did the same. The morphing ring was staying in the middle, but with all of the tugging, it was being twisted and turned. After twenty or so minutes of this, both teacher and student were sweating, while the ring was still immobile from the center. All the students were cheering, clapping, and screaming. Finally Julie gave it one more hard pull sending it flying into her hand. It was hot from all of the morphing it did and it looked like a piece of twisted metal and nothing resembling a ring.

"Shit you're strong," Jean said panting.

This was the perfect opportunity to correct the teacher. Julie replied in the same hoarse voice, "You said not to cuss and I told you I would win. You owe me fifty dollars."

"I'll give it to you later." Julie was resting on her crutches while Jean was resting her head on the table in front of her.

Mrs. Lauer was trying to lighten up the room. "I think these two hot heads need to cool off. What do you think?"

The class replied simultaneously with a unanimous yes. Deb made two waterballs and threw them at the two panting competitors. Jean let hers hit her while Julie barely stopped it. "Remember what happens when you try to cool me off? I need fire, not my fire somebody elses. Mine won't work right now. Where's John?"

Hannah said from the back, "He's out in the game room." Julie walked out the door looking for John. She finally spotted him.

"Hey! Can you give me a light?"

"Sure," John replied pulling a flame from his custom-made Zippo. He threw the flame at Julie who caught it and absorbed it. She seemed to have gained all of her energy.

"Thanks John. I'll see you later," Julie said walking back into Jean's classroom.

Jean had regained her strength and told her students, "Class dismissed. Julie, when did you first notice your mutation?"

"Well, I noticed the fire thing before anything else and that was about a year ago and about eleven months before I came here. I was still learning to focus and stuff," she replied. Mrs. Lauer had gotten up and left.

"It's amazing that your mutation has already developed so much that it is stronger than mine. Hey, how about I give you an excuse to skip classes and we head out to the mall. You have fifty dollars to spend plus all of that money from college you were saving. What do you think you'll buy?"

You know what I would buy. Just guess. I know you're in here, just admit it.

Fine, you caught me. You'd buy a laptop for your room; I also know that you are thinking you'd rather major in computer sciences rather than marine sciences.

Julie spoke, "So what? Doesn't really matter does it? I'm not going to get to go to college. With those crappy mutant scanners we can barely do anything now. At least the restaurants and the mall around here don't care if you are a mutant. Anyways, I shouldn't skip classes."

"You are very outgoing sometimes aren't you?"

"I gotta go." Julie stuffed the textbook into her bag and went up to her room. She pulled out her CD player that she hadn't touched since she moved here. Out came her favorite singers: The Andrews Sisters, The Beatles, and Simon and Garfunkel. First she plugged into the Andrews Sisters and listened to Boogie Woogy Bugle Boy and then she listened to all of the Beatles songs she had. Finally it was time to go to her next class: mechanics.

"You're early," Scott said as Julie entered the garage. He was polishing his motorcycle. "I heard you had a game of tug-o-war going on with Jean."

"Yeah. I won. So, what do we do in here? I mean for class," she asked looking curiously around the garage. The only time she had ever been in here was to drop her bike off.

"Pretty much nothing if you have a driver's license. I just teach the kids how to drive or do mechanical work," he said as she walked over to her motorcycle and sat down on it.

Julie asked, "Well, I know how to drive and I don't want to become a mechanic. Can I just skip this class and gym since my leg is broken and I can drive?"

"Fine, just make sure you're supervised. Go hang out with Deb or Jean. Everybody else has class right now," Scott said standing up. "Just don't get into trouble." Julie was already hobbling out of the door before she could hear that last bit. She headed to Jean's classroom and knocked.

"Hey Not-As-Strong-As-Me teacher," she said in a smart aleck voice as she pushed the door open. Mrs. Lauer was talking to Jean and they were giggling. "How do you two know each other anyway?"

Mrs. Lauer answered, "We're second cousins twice removed or something like that. I have no idea and I don't think it matters." She paused and then asked, "Shouldn't you be in class right now?"

Julie replied, "Nope. Scott said that since I can drive I can skip mechanics and since my leg is broken I could skip gym. I get to stay in here until after chemistry since we don't have English."

"Goody. You feeling better from this morning because you look it," Jean said. Julie flamed up her hands.

"Yep. I'm feeling great. What about you?" She extinguished the fire.

"Better and please don't bring fire in here. There are flammable chemicals and other things I don't want burned in here," she said.

"Fine Ms. Spoil Sport." Mrs. Lauer laughed. "Also, what's with the laughing?" Julie looked at her again. "Never mind." The three of them talked for two hours since the students just skipped English whenever they had it and went on to their next class.

Today in chemistry they were going to be talking about elements and then doing experiments with bases and acids. All of the students had to have a partner and John and Julie were a pair. When they were combining some chemicals, John got curious at how heat would change the reaction. He pulled out his lighter, made a fireball and held it beneath the beaker. It blew up.

"JOHN!" Jean yelled. It was on fire and the other student's were screaming even though Bobby was in the room. He put the fire out freezing the beaker at the same time. "Don't burn anything!"

He sent Jean a thought that he knew she would pick up. _Oh sorry Teach. You know I was only showing off._

Yeah John, you were showing off to Julie who likes you anyway. So don't try to show off because you might burn the whole mansion down and the professor is coming home tonight with a new student.

"Fine whatever," John said as the rest of the students were leaving. He scooped up his stuff and left the room.

"Julie, either you will be a good influence on him or you will be turned by his fiery attitude," Jean said. They were the only two people in the room. "The professor is coming home tonight and with a new student. I also heard Logan is coming back tomorrow."

She responded, "Excited are you? I gotta go. I'll see you later. When you are up for another game of tug-o-war, tell me and I'll be up for a fight." Julie walked out leaning on her crutches.

Truth was, Jean _was_ excited that Logan was coming home. Something about his rough, tough attitude made her attracted to him. She knew he had had a crush on her since he ended up at the mansion with Rogue and he knew that him flirting with her drove Scott insane. Jean would just have to put on a strong face.

**Chapter 9: Love Is In the Air**

A/N: This takes place six weeks later. It's not going to get into deep, deep love and if you are reading this, you know what I am talking about. I might just have kissing, but just to let you know, I'm only thirteen and I have never been kissed. So don't flame up at me for making it seem unreal. I also know that this is kinda short, so don't get mad at me for that.

A/N 2: This is just something I wanted to write. I think I'm obsessed and so do my friends. It's like 24 almost 25 pages long. Translation: It's the longest thing I've written. I know it's not that long compared to other people's stories though, but still, it's a lot for me. AND KEEP REVIEWING!s

Disclaimer: Look back. I'm too lazy to rewrite it.

"Can't catch me!" Susan screamed. She and the new student, Remy LeBeau, were racing around the back of the manor. Bobby, Rogue, Julie, Paul, John, Kitty, and Hannah were watching them.

Remy replied, "Oh yes I can!" Susan and Remy had become almost inseparable.

"Hey, why do ya'll wanna be out here in the middle of January? It's freezing! Plus it's snowing!" Rogue exclaimed.

Remy and Susan stopped to say, "So? It's Saturday and we can do whatever." Rogue rolled her eyes and sighed. She knew they wouldn't stop until they were too tired to run.

They were racing around the pool with Susan leading the two of them. Paul screamed, "Susan watch out!" She slipped on some ice around the pool and was about to crack her head open when she stopped in mid air and was lowered to the ground.

"I totally just saved your ass," Julie said smiling and showing her dimples. "Who wants a hot tub party?" She engulfed her hands in fire while John pulled out his lighter and made a fireball. Together they made a giant sheet of fire to go over the pool to melt the layer of ice. When they finally doused the fire, the pool was steaming and it felt great. Julie, John, Bobby, and Paul jumped in with just their regular clothes on. Everybody followed their lead and created a mound of winter jackets in front of the door.

Hannah asked, "Hey Julie, can you heat it up a little more?" Everybody started shouting out that it was getting too cold and Bobby and Paul needed to get out. So they did and went inside.

"Fine! Cool your jets," Julie said once again engulfing her hands in fire. This time, though, she flamed up her whole body.

Kitty screamed, "Too hot! Too hot!" Julie extinguished the flames that surrounded her. You could see the couples in the pool. Susan and Remy were cuddled up and so were Julie and John. Paul and Hannah also seemed to be becoming boyfriend and girlfriend. Hannah did once have a crush on him.

"Hey, it's too hot in here. I'm gonna go cool off with Bobby and Paul," Rogue said.

"Go right ahead. It feels great in here," replied a closed-eyes Kitty. "Remy, send Jean and all of them a message to get out here." Remy had limited telepathic powers, but they were strong enough to get a message around the house.

Remy said, "They are coming."

Storm pushed the back door open, "Hey, the adults have arrived." Logan pushed passed her and stared at the teenage couples.

"I hear that our little Phoenix has heated up the pool. Am I correct?" he asked.

"Yes and," Julie said.

"No," John continued quickly. "I helped."

Logan looked at them with a confused look. "Are you two a couple? Whatever, it doesn't matter. Scoot over I'm coming in." He slid into the pool and said, "Damn it's hot. You're gonna scald us all heating it up this much." Julie used her telekinesis and flew a wave of water at him. "Shit! Don't do that!" Everybody laughed and the rest of the adults entered the pool.

"Logan's right. This is way too hot," Mrs. Lauer said. "Bobby! Paul! Come out here please and cool off this boiler!" Bobby and Paul showed up and dove into the pool. "Okay. Get out now. You're cooling it off too much."

Storm exclaimed, "Deb!"

"It's okay. They already kicked us out. Rogue was playing B.S. with us. See ya'll later," Paul said.

Bobby added, "Come inside soon. It's getting colder." So for the next couple of hours, until eight, the teens and teachers of Mutant High talked and swam.

Everybody was sitting in the game room shivering, well, everybody but Julie and John and Mrs. Lauer. "Could you dry us off and warm us up or at least get us some towels?" Scott asked. John pulled out his lighter and made a not-so-hot fireball. Julie engulfed her body in flames and let everybody surround her trying to heat up. Mrs. Lauer attracted all of the water on the sopping wet bodies to form a waterball that she threw back into the pool.

Jean asked, "Would one of you light the fire?" John threw the fireball into the fireplace after he stacked the firewood inside. Sparks and embers exploded from the fire, causing Storm to jump. "What's with you?"

"We had a little trouble with Remy here." It was the professor. "He didn't really want to come and unfortunately, he was playing cards. Anything small or so can be very hazardous to anybody's health. Especially when Remy is holding it and is very mad."

Scott looked at her with a puzzled look. He asked, "Wasn't that a while ago?"

"Yeah, but this kid can pack a punch," Storm said smiling.

Hannah, Logan, Mrs. Lauer, and Storm went upstairs to change and then Hannah was going to join Paul, Bobby, and Rogue in their game of Bullshit. The rest of the group was in the game room talking.

Julie asked, "What time do the younger kids go to bed? I never see them. I barely ever see them at meal times."

Kitty answered since Professor Xavier had gone upstairs. "They go to bed early or at least stay in their rooms. A lot of the younger student's were withdrawn because their parents thought they were being taught to rebel and fight with their mutation."

"Oh," Julie said. Once again the couples had broken off. She had snuggled up next to John with her head resting on his shoulder and Susan and Remy were cuddling up also. Although Jean and Scott were not so shy about showing their emotions to one another; they were kissing intensely. Not so much tongue and loving, but in a sweet intimate way. Julie said behind a smirk, "Get a room." Susan, Remy, and John laughed and Scott and Jean just smiled at us.

A book came flying towards the back of her head and ended up landing on top of it. Julie returned the favor by chucking it at Jean by hand. "Once again," she said sweetly. "What the hell is up with the flying books?"

Jean said stopping the book in front of her face, "I just thought it would be funny. Though no tug-o-war with books, it makes a mess."

Julie looked at the clock and the face showed nine. "I am going to go up to my room and get on my new computer. Good night because you probably won't see me till morning." She got up and gave John a little kiss on the lips. "Night."

John replied sweetly, "Night."

Susan got up, "I'm gonna go hang out with Julie. See ya'll in the morning." She too gave her boyfriend a little kiss on the lips and walked up the stairs and towards Julie's room.

She knocked on the door. "Hey Jules!"

Julie replied, "Hey Susan." She was typing something on her laptop. Susan could tell she could type really fast because she saw words keep popping up.

"What are ya typing up?" Susan said coming behind Julie and resting her hands on her shoulders.

"I don't know. Just a story I guess. It's crappy, I just needed something to do." She paused and continued, "Where is Remy from?"

"He's Cajun and sometimes he calls himself Gambit," Susan answered. "As in, he's part French. He used to live in New Orleans."

Julie replied still typing, "That's awesome." She stopped typing and hit Ctrl-S to save and then shut the laptop. "Done." The younger teen walked over to the bed, watching Susan looking at her music.

"The Beatles? Andrews Sisters? Simon and Garfunkel? This is old people's music."

"So what, I like this music."

"Whatever. I'm going to bed." Susan walked out of the room and turned left towards hers. Julie pulled out some clean pajamas and underwear and went to take a shower. She walked out into her room and got dressed. There was a knock on the door. "John? It's like ten. What are you doing in here?"

"I just thought I owed you a better goodnight kiss."

"Oh," she said walking over to him. "Well then here's your chance. Five, four, three…" Her face was against his. John gently wrapped his hand around her head and kissed her intimately. After a few minutes, he pulled away slowly. "I think your debt is paid."

John whispered, "I think it has." She heard footsteps on the stairs.

"Get a room." Jean was waving at Julie as she and Scott were heading to the bedroom they shared.

Julie and John stared at each other smiling. "Goodnight John. I'll see you tomorrow." He left and once he was sure she couldn't see her, he made a fist and pulled it down in an _Oh Yeah!_ kind of way. He smiled all the way back to his room. On his way back he saw Paul and Hannah kissing too. Love was in the air.

**Chapter 10: Fire and Ice Swing**

A/N/: Sorry, it's not very long. Lots and lots of dialogue, sorry, it would have to show up sooner or later. Hope you enjoy. Please, please review! Thanks to all my readers and readers that actually reviewed and a great thanks to my friend Susan, who is totally pissed at me because my teacher is reading this. You know who you are if you are taking the time to read this.

Disclaimer: I'm a lazy ass, like I've said before, so just look back on past chappies. (I love that word!)

John walked into the kitchen the next morning looking for some breakfast. "Somebody was smoochin' last night and so were three other couples," Storm said looking at Bobby, Jean, and Paul.

"So what? We're only human," Julie said walking into the room. Susan and Hannah followed.

Jean continued, "Yeah we're only human."

"Copycat," Julie told her. Today, there was no feast of food; only cereal, toast, and eggs. That didn't matter to any of them though.

Deb walked in. "Good morning all. What's up? Anything new?" she said retrieving a mug from a cabinet and pouring herself some coffee.

"Nothing much here except for people who don't know how to get a room. All of them except for Jean and Scott were kissing in the hallway. I won't even mention what I heard coming from their room." She tilted her head towards Jean.

They all became silent when they heard the rolling wheels of a wheelchair. "Jean, would you make the announcement? Or Ororo?" Professor Xavier asked.

Jean said, "I will. Today we are taking all of you out for you're first mission. We figure since all of you are almost eighteen, with the exception of Julie and Paul, you should be able to decide if you want to be a member of the X-Men."

Bobby shouted, "Alright! Do we get uniforms?" Julie didn't seem very interested. She was getting a bottle of soda out of the cabinet.

"Nope sorry," Storm said.

"Bobby, catch." Julie threw the bottle of soda to Bobby who opened it and blew into it creating frost on the sides. She walked over and took the soda from him. "Thanks." Professor Xavier had left. "Why is he always coming and going?"

Jean answered, "He's got a lot to take care of and isn't it a little early for soda? It's not even noon yet."

Hannah told her, "She doesn't get hyper. No amount of sugar will get her bouncing off the walls."

"She doesn't even have a great sense of humor unless she's playing a prank on somebody," Susan added. Rogue, Scott, and Remy walked into the kitchen to and sat down next to their girlfriend or boyfriend.

Scott kissed Jean on her forehead and told her, "Morning."

"Good morning," she replied taking another sip of the orange juice in front of her. "What are we going to do today?"

"I don't know. I was thinking of going shopping for a new guitar since I haven't played one in ages," he told her. Julie stopped drinking her soda and looked up because she was reading the newspaper from behind Scott.

Julie asked, "Can I go? I'm planning to buy a couple new instruments."

Jean nodded, "That would be fine. I'll go with you guys and if anybody else wants to join us, you're welcome to."

There was an echo of, "No thanks," throughout the kitchen. "Okay then," Jean said. "We'll leave in ten minutes." Julie hopped up and threw her soda bottle into the trashcan and ran up the stairs. She grabbed her birkenstocks and threw them on.

"Let's see, keys, money, jacket." Julie grabbed her jacket off of her bed and ran out into the garage to find Jean and Scott in his jeep. "I'm gonna drive my motorcycle. I'll follow you." She threw on her helmet that had flames on it and hopped onto her bike. Scott pulled out of the garage and into the driveway and then out into the street. Julie followed them out.

They reached a little record shop after about ten minutes. "Do they really sell albums here? That's awesome if they do because I've actually gotten to play a record."

Jean told her, "Sorry, they don't. Professor Xavier might have some somewhere along with an old record player." Scott entered the store first followed by Jean then Julie.

An employee approached them. "May I help you or your daughter?"

Julie replied, "I'm not her daughter and no, I can help myself." He turned around on one heel and left to go help Scott who was looking at acoustic guitars. "I'll be over here." She walked over to look at the acoustics with Scott until she found an Alvarez folk guitar. It was in great shape so she had the employee pack it up in a case she had also bought. Julie continued shopping. "How much is this trumpet?"

"Which one?" the employee asked.

"The Bach Stradivarius."

"Fifteen hundred Miss."

"I'll take it and also, can I get 5C and 7C mouthpieces?"

"Sure." He walked into the back and brought back a case with two small boxes. "Here are your mouthpieces and your trumpet."

Julie thanked him and opened up the case and put both mouthpieces in their rightful place inside the case. She was set and walked over to Scott who was purchasing the same Alvarez she had except his was a twelve string. "You ready to go?"

Scott told her fixing the guitar case over his shoulder, "Yeah. Let's get Jean and go home. Also, you can put your things in my car if you want. I don't think all of that will fit on your motorcycle."

"Thanks." Julie looked over at Jean who was looking at piano music. "Jean come on, let's go home. We are done shopping."

She told her with a half-smile on her face, "Quite busy aren't we. How much money did you spend here?"

"Probably $1800. I got a guitar, a couple of picks, a trumpet, and two mouthpieces. All of that adds up quickly. Did you find anything?"  
"Nope. Let's go." They exited the store and hopped into or onto their vehicle and rode home. Julie unpacked her guitar on her bed and started tuning it. A couple rooms down, Scott was doing the same. She started plucking at the strings, playing little tunes here and there.

Mrs. Lauer appeared in the doorway. "Nice guitar. You get it today?"

"Yeah. Nice isn't it?"

"Sure is, Scott's looks exactly the same. Is it?" she asked.

"Nope, his is a twelve string. Didn't you notice?" Julie had a smirk on her face.

"What else did you get?" Deb asked curiously.

Jules replied, "A trumpet. I'll probably have to play it outside in the back or sometime when I won't bother anybody." She packed her guitar back up and placed it inside the closet next to her trumpet. "I'm gonna go get a soda. I hope Paul or Bobby is here to cool it off. They really need to start putting it in the fridge." After she reached the kitchen she grabbed another soda and found John in the kitchen along with Susan.

"Hey Buddy." Mrs. Lauer had followed Julie down the stairs.

Deb replied with an annoyed tone, "Please don't call me that. I could put up with it for a while when Sarah called me it, but not now."

"Alright." Susan glanced at Julie. "Jules, you might want to help John. He's trying to make himself a grilled cheese, but he keeps blowing it up in flames and burning it black."

Julie told her boyfriend, "I'll cook the grilled cheese and you get me a soda from the cabinet." She took over the stove and turned the heat on low and flipped it out of the pan and onto a plate when it was done cooking. "Done." John took the plate from her and handed her soda, which had already been opened.

"Thanks," he said. He dug into his sandwich while Susan and Julie chatted with Mrs. Lauer.

Susan asked them, "So, what's up?" Julie was taking a giant gulp of soda, which of course was her favorite, Dr. Pepper. "Are any of you going to respond," she said after nobody had replied to her question.

Finally her formal teacher said, "What? Sorry. I'm out of it today. I guess it's the weather. Snow just makes everything, no matter how ugly it is, beautiful. Too much can be very bad though."

"Yeah. Speaking of which, I'm going to go outside and play in the snow. I may be sixteen but I can still play in the snow." Julie got up and ran upstairs to return with a big coat, boots, and gloves on. "You coming Susan?"

She answered with a nod. "Just a sec." Susan ran up to her room and also came back bundled up with clothes. "Okay. I'm ready." The two teens walked outside and into the snow. Bobby and Paul were already out there, but they didn't have quite so many layers on. "Aren't you cold?" Paul was making a trail of ice.

"Nope. Remember, I'm the Iceman. Wanna join us? We're making ice slides," Bobby said. Paul ran and slid across the ice with Bobby behind him.

Julie told them, "Awesome. Sure, hold on." She flamed up her body. "Just a precaution. I'll try not to melt the ice," and as she was saying that, she was rearing up like a bull ready to charge. Sliding down the track of ice, Bobby yelled.

"You just melted the ice!"

"I warned you. What are you gonna do about it?" Bobby started creating an ice sculpture in his hand. When he finished it was a sword. Julie, knowing what game was coming up, extinguished all flames around her except for those on her hands. She too, created a weapon; a fire staff. "Ready?"

Bobby nodded. "Susan, I think this is going to take a while. Wanna sit down?" Paul asked. He created to chairs of ice that were placed over rocks. They sat down and the battle started or more so the rules being laid down.

Iceman told her, "Phoenix versus Iceman. No telekinesis unless needed for own protection."

Susan bellowed, "Ready, set, go." Bobby charged at Julie and she stood her ground and blocked his attack with her staff. They each had their weapon against the others, but Bobby was trying to pull his away. Water started dripping off the edges of his sword. Finally, Julie backed off.

"That's just a little taste of what's to come. Remember, I beat a teacher in a battle of telekinesis and my fire power came first."

"So what?" He stood up straight and smiled at her.

"This!" She ran towards him and he blocked his head only to be knocked over backwards. Julie had swept his ankles making him collapse. "I kicked your ass." She returned the smile and helped her friend back up.

John came out wiping his mouth of his sandwich. "Bravo! Bravo! That didn't take long. Nobody can beat my Firebug."

Julie told him, "I told you not to call me that." He smiled and then put his arms around her giving her a bear hug.

Paul looked at them. "Get a room. I'm actually getting to cold out here so I need to go to my room to warm up. Julie, you should go get that trumpet I was hearing about and play it." He got up and went inside with everybody else following him. "Hey Bobby, where's Rogue and Kitty?"

"They went to the mall." The teens went inside to dry off and get warmed up. Julie pulled out her trumpet and started playing some old-fashioned jazz. She played through the night with an audience of mutants. Song after song, applause after applause, she played through the night until they were all too tired and fell asleep right in the game room.

**Chapter 11: The Attack**

A/N: This chappie is probably the longest so far, it's a crappy chapter, sorry. I just wanted to do something a little different. Sorry to the teacher that's reading this because you don't show up very much. I'm probably going to minimize the existence of a couple characters like Hannah and Paul because I wanna enter some new characters. Probably a permanent and a temporary one; remember when I said that I'm going to be adding characters based on my friends sooner or later.

Disclaimer: Screw this. I don't even know if we have to keep repeating this, but like I've said and I will quote what I've already said, "I'm a lazy ass, like I've said before, so just look back on past chappies. (I love that word!)"

Somebody stirred. "What? Huh." Storm's eyes were partially open and looking directly at Professor Xavier who was chuckling. "Sorry about not waking up in time."

"It's okay Ororo, I have canceled all classes today so you can listen to music or play in the snow. I actually have found another mutant with cerebro and was hoping that this would be the mission I was mentioning yesterday. If you could do me a favor and wake all of them up, that would be wonderful. Scott is already up and preparing the car. It is not too far from here and would be a waste of time preparing the X-Jet. I will be going to England to visit an ill family member and I leave Jean in charge with you helping her." The professor left the game room and headed towards the elevator only to return with a suitcase in his lap. "Goodbye and wish them all good luck. Scott already has the coordinates set and will be ready to go whenever you are. Also, you will not be bringing this mutant back to the manor. I just want to see how they handle themselves. Scott knows what is going on have him fill you in and Storm, if Julie wants to take her bike, by all means let her. She could probably do some good flying solo." After those words he was out the door.

Storm got up and started shaking everybody. "Wake up! You guys want to go on your first mission? Then get up!" One by one, restless bodies began to awaken heading up to their rooms to shower and get dressed. After Storm was dressed and ready to go she went to talk to Scott who was sitting in a jeep. "Are we taking both jeeps? What's the plan the professor was talking about?"

Scott answered. "Yes we are taking both jeeps. You and I are driving. The plan is that the mutant is one of the other teachers from the school that Julie came from. She knows that we are coming and is going to put up a fight so we can evaluate how well they handle themselves. Her mutation should protect her, but if things get too rough, we can step in."

"Oh. Who's the mutant?"

"Alyssa Eisel. Her mutation allows her to block anything, including mutant powers."

"Okay. I'll go get the others. Julie's probably going to be riding her bike just to let you know." Storm walked back into the mansion and rounded everybody up. Julie grabbed her helmet and followed everybody out.

Scott announced, "Jean, Bobby, Kitty, Susan, and Remy into my car. Paul, John, Rogue, Deb, and Hannah into Storm's. Let's go."

Hannah asked, "What about Julie?"

"Julie is going solo. She'll meet us there or vice versa." She had already zoomed out of the garage and was heading for an old warehouse downtown in Manhattan. The two jeeps followed in her tracks.

Finally Julie reached the warehouse and walked in looking for the mutant. "You?"

"You? What are you doing here? I didn't know I would be going up against you. I knew Charles would be sending teens, but I had no idea it would be you. Who else is coming?"

Julie answered, "Paul, Hannah, Mrs. Lauer, Susan Bay, and some other kids you haven't met yet. So are you coming back with us?"

Alyssa told her, "Sadly, no. You have to put on an act. When they finally show, which will be in about three minutes, you have to put on an act. Go ahead and give me your best shot. Charles wants to see how well you guys can work together. Don't worry, I won't get hurt."

"Alyssa, you sure about this?"

"Yep. Go get on your bike and then get back off like you just got here. I've got to go back inside. Once they get here, run inside and start firing and the others should follow." Julie did as she was told and sat on her motorcycle until the two jeeps came coming around the road. She got off and ran inside of the warehouse and flared up her hands and started sending fire everywhere.

Hannah screamed, "We're coming Julie!" The teens followed while the adults stayed in the cars and cranked up the tunes. Mini explosions could be heard along with the visual of ice and fire being thrown around. Occasionally you could here a screech of an owl and then the clank of metal.

Jean asked, "Do you think we should go inside?"

Deb answered, "Yep." All of the adults were filled in on the scheme. They got out of the cars and casually walked into the warehouse to break up the fight. "Timeout!" Everybody froze to look at Mrs. Lauer.

Scott spoke. "You all have done very well. You pass."

"Pass what?" Paul asked.

Alyssa answered, "This was a test."

"Ms. Eisel? What are you doing here?"

"I'm a mutant. Professor Xavier set up this little test to see how well you would be at retrieving. Other than the fact if I didn't have my mutation, you would have fried me, you did well. Just lay off all of the powers."

Julie said, "See, I'm so smart. I already knew this. I was acting and I'd say I did a mighty fine job, wouldn't you say so Alyssa?"

Deb questioned her, "Wait, you'll call her Alyssa now, but you wouldn't call me Deb?"

She answered for Julie. "Yep. I had Julie at camp for two years and knew her before you knew her, so, she had already been calling me Alyssa." Mrs. Lauer had a, whatever look on her face.

Susan asked, "Are you going to come back to the institute with us?"

"Nope. I've been staying in a hotel nearby. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do, but I'm not planning to return with ya'll," she said.

"Oh." Bobby, Kitty, Rogue, Remy, and John approached her. Jean, Scott, and Storm did the same.

Bobby introduced all of them. "Hi. I'm Bobby. Call me Iceman." He shook her hand and frost surrounded it and melted after he took his hand away. "This is Kitty, Rogue, Remy, and John."

Scott said shaking Alyssa's hand, "We haven't been formally introduced yet. I'm Scott Summers. This is Jean Grey and Ororo Munroe. You already know Deb." She shook all of their hands and said hello to them.

Alyssa said, "Well I gotta go. My car's around back." She just noticed Julie's bike for the first time. Like actually looking at it and not just seeing it. "Nice bike. I'll keep in touch." They had been so busy they hadn't realized how cold they were. Julie flamed up her body to warm herself up and everybody else hopped into the jeep for the heat and rode back home. She followed still on fire.

_Hey Julie. Douse it. People are going to chase after because they know you are a mutant. Try and keep a low profile at least._ Jean was looking back at her. Julie doused her flames and kept on riding until they reached the garage at the institute once more. It was two when they got back and they were all tired out. Julie, John, Susan, and Remy plopped down onto the couch and started watching a movie. The girls had their heads resting on their boyfriends' shoulder. Jean whispered to Scott, "Who does that remind you of?" She smiled and they walked off towards their bedroom. Paul, Bobby, Rogue, and Kitty went outside to play in the snow and Hannah went upstairs to sleep. Julie had started to fall asleep with John with his arm around her. Susan got up and grabbed a glass of water and came back to sit down.

"Remy, I'm going to take a nap. I'll be upstairs if you need me," Susan said getting back up and heading towards her room.

Gambit asked, "Why do girls always go to sleep when they get the chance to?"

John slowly turned not to awake Julie. "'Cause they never sleep at night, that I know of. I know Julie doesn't because she's always on that computer of hers. Susan, I have no idea. She's your girlfriend, so you should figure it out. I'm gonna go out for a little bit. Tell Julie I took her bike." He scooped up her keys off of the side table and was out the door.

Jean walked in from the kitchen. "Where's John and Susan?" She looked around the room hoping to see them, but all she saw was Julie sleeping and taking up half of the couch and Remy sitting there looking at her with his red eyes.

"John went out and Susan is upstairs sleeping. Where's Mrs. Lauer?"

She replied, "She went out to lunch with Logan and Storm. Scott and I are planning to join them soon."

"Oh." Jean left and went to rejoin Scott in the kitchen. "Why are you eating here then?" They must've not heard him because there was no reply. Remy just kept on watching the movie until it was over. As people woke up, came inside, and arrived back at the manor, they joined him.

Pyro had arrived back home. "Hey Julie, catch." He threw the keys to her and told her, "Hold on, I've got something else for you." John dug into his coat pocket and threw her a lighter. "Got you a present. Like it?" It was black and had a wolf on it.

Julie replied, "Love it. Thanks so much." She got up and gave him a hug.

Deb asked, "Why'd you get her a lighter? She doesn't need it."

"He got it for me because he saw me looking at it online. I thought it would be cool to have a lighter. It will be mine, and I shall always carry it wherever I go," Julie told her. Deb nodded her head in understanding. Julie flipped it open and lit it and then closed it.

Bobby said, "Not more flick-click sounds!" She started to imitate what John was always doing with his lighter. This just made Bobby sigh greatly and roll his eyes.

John said, "She's a natural." Julie stopped and put it in her pocket. "I hear Jean planted some flowers out back. They may be covered with snow but they are still burnable." Jean shot him an evil glance and threw a pillow at him. "I was just joking."

"John, shut up," Julie said annoyed. She leaned over and gave him a kiss. "Thanks for the lighter. I've got to go wash up. It's almost dinner time and you should get cleaned up too." Halfway up the stairs, she threw John's lighter at him. "I'm not such a bad pick-pocketer am I?" She smiled and headed for her room.

Logan asked, "What the hell was that?" A loud bang had gone off from near the front door. He sniffed the air. Scott headed for the front door. "Hold on." His adamantium claws shot out and he charged at a dark figure that had just appeared. A gun went off and there was more screaming. "Storm, go get the jet ready!"

Scott yelled, "Jean!" A shadowy figure held a gun to her head. There was a click and then a burst of fire. Jean collapsed to the ground. "Jean, are you okay?"

She answered quietly, "Yeah. Get the kids to safety." Scott ran up the stairs to get everybody out.

John yelled to Bobby and Rogue who were following in Storm's footsteps, "We gotta get Julie! C'mon!" The three teens ran to the elevator and up to Julie's room. They heard gunshots from her room. "No!" He started crying.

Rogue told them, "We gotta get outta here John." She and Bobby guided him back downstairs and out to the jet. When everybody was safely aboard, Storm took off.

Mrs. Lauer asked, "Where's Julie?" Then she saw John crying and knew. All of the younger children were crying in the back where there were more seats. The adults and teens sat up front near the cockpit. Everybody closed their eyes and became silent on behalf of their lost friend.

"You don't mess with the Phoenix." Julie stepped over the lifeless bodies of soldiers and left. She knew they had left her. When they heard those shots, they were sure she had died, but she hadn't. She gathered up her things and packed them up and put them in a pickup in the garage. Among these things was her beloved bike that she had to squeeze on to get onto the truck. After hotwiring the truck, she was off. Nobody had known she was alive and so nobody followed her or even looked for her. "I'll go to that abandoned warehouse. That's where they will be. I know it." So she drove off to that old warehouse and parked around the back.

The warehouse was giant. Probably was a mile or two around. Julie unloaded her bike and rode around front to find the X-Jet hidden behind junk. "I'm so smart," she congratulated herself. She rode inside of the warehouse to find huddled up kids and upset adults. "Miss me?" she said trying to light up the mood.

"Julie?" John looked up and at first glance, her ran to her and hugged her. "I thought you were dead."

"I know you did." Julie turned her attention to Jean. "They've left, for now. Nothing was wrecked except maybe a few turned over chairs and singed cloth."

Jean asked her, "How'd you get out?"

_Do you even have to ask?_ Jean nodded her head no. Deb said, "Well I'd like to know."

Julie said, "If everybody will listen now so I don't have to repeat myself, I will. Okay, so I was getting some clothes out so I could take my shower when I heard a creak that only came from the loose floorboard at the doorway. So I turned around to see who it was and four guys with guns had entered my room. They fired and fired, until they realized I was still standing. At first they were shooting tranquilizer darts, then they switched over to bullets. After they ran out of bullets, I shot ever bullet I had stopped back at them. Telekinesis can be very handy sometimes. So can this." She pulled out her lighter and flicked it open. "Great for energy saver and booster." Julie noticed that John still hadn't let go of her and still had his arms around her. "John let go." When he didn't, she burst her body into flames to throw him off. "Sorry, but you were invading my space." She helped him back onto his feet and they joined the others on the rows of tires they had set up.

Scott said, "Nice story. Could you maybe get us a fire going? John was thinking too much to make us one. We already got some stuff to burn over there." He pointed to a pile of paper and old material inside the warehouse.

Julie asked, "Why can't I just do this?" She flamed up her entire body again and everybody jumped away.

Storm said, "Because it's too hot!"

"Fine. I'll use my new lighter." She flipped it open and created a fireball that she hurled into the materials. All of the younger kids surrounded it, still huddled up. There were only six of them trying to stay warm. "Why didn't ya'll just stay in the jet?"

Bobby said, "Not enough room for all of us. Everybody who laid next to Paul or I complained that it was too cold and the opposite with John. Nobody even wanted to try to sleep next to Rogue for obvious reasons. That's why we ended up out here. All we've got is that pile of blankets from the jet."

Paul butted in, "Luckily, Bobby and I don't get that cold and John is so hot-headed he doesn't get cold either. Unfortunately, not everybody is as lucky as we are, except for Rogue."

She said, "I took some of John's power to keep me fairly warm, but that was it."

John mentioned, "It hurt! It may have done little to you but remember that you drain them if you use your power and that does not feel good." Rogue rolled her eyes and sighed. "I'm tired, I'm gonna go to bed." He got up and grabbed a blanket from the top of the pile.

Jean announced to everybody, "Time for bed. We'll go home in a couple days." The redhead turned her attention to Julie. "I need to get some food supplies and I want you to come with me. Storm, you're in charge." The two mutants left the warehouse in the truck that Julie had brought.

"So why'd you want me to come with you?" she asked. Jean was driving so she couldn't see that Julie was playing with her lighter.

"For company and if you keep flicking that thing, I'm gonna throw it out the window." A smile appeared on her face. "I could also use the safety. You took out four members of a S.W.A.T. team to come out without a scratch."

Julie smiled. "I did and that was nothing."

"And that's what scares me," Jean said and the silence after she spoke continued in until they got to the store. "We need some bread, Dr. Pepper, water, deli meat, peanut butter, and oreos.

Her companion asked, "How are we going to keep all of this cold?" She paused and continued, "Well, duh! We have our own personal icebox." Jean rolled her eyes and continued shopping. Once they got all of their supplies, they left. "Luckily, it at least has plumbing."

Jean and Julie left and returned to the warehouse an hour after they had left. Immediately, Jean ordered, "Bobby, put these on ice." Bobby had woken up as soon as he heard the car, knowing that he would be needed. She tossed the soda, water, and meat. He froze each and each item gathered an inch layer of ice around it. "That should keep it okay. Let's go to bed and we'll worry about other things when we get up." Julie and Jean each grabbed a blanket and went to bed.

Julie woke up after being shaken. John told her, "C'mon. We gotta help make breakfast. Storm wants us to make toast." She got up and once again engulfed her hands in fire. John held the bread and Julie waved her hands underneath and on top, crisping the bread brown. After they had made enough toast for everybody, she started playing with her lighter.

Hannah was the fourth person to wake up and she walked over to Paul and gave him a kiss. "Get up sleepy head." He moaned and sat up.

"That was the worst thing to sleep on. The ground." Paul was rubbing his back as Hannah helped him to his feet. "Thanks. So, what's for breakfast?" He spotted the toast and grabbed two pieces and tossed a third to his girlfriend.

"Thanks," she told him. Julie was still playing with her lighter, making a little firebird fly around her head and hands and arms. "That's pretty cool. Paul, can you do anything like that?"

Paul told her, "I can do this." He froze the bird and made it drop into Julie's hand.

Julie snapped at him, "Hey!" She made another one after she threw the first bird at Paul who just barely dodged it. Unfortunately, it hit Logan right on the head.

"Crap! That hurt!" he looked straight at the culprit. "That had your scent all over, so don't be thinking you'll be getting away with it."

Scott yawned, "Get away with what?"

Jean told him after reading Julie's mind, "Throwing a piece of ice at him." One by one the students woke up and got their share of toast. "Only one piece per person."

Paul said innocently, "Oops."

Julie said, "It's okay, that'll be mine. I'm not hungry."

Mrs. Lauer told her, "You need to eat something. You probably haven't had anything to eat since yesterday morning."

"You are right and no, I don't need to eat anything. Anyways, what are we going to do today?"

"I'll take three of you back with me and we'll go check out the manor and try to clean it up a little bit. Remy, Julie, and John. Logan, you'll be in charge of making sure nobody comes snooping around here. The rest of you, work on camouflaging the jet," Scott ordered. Julie scooped up her keys and the other three piled into the truck.

Julie zoomed off telling them, "I'll see you there. I'm gonna check it out real quick and make sure there aren't any police people there."

Scott called out to Jean, "She's going to kill herself one day. She's too independent and too arrogant. If she's going to be an X-Men and on my team, she needs to learn how to become a team member."

Jean asked him, "Who does that sound like?" Scott shook his head not knowing. "You. Remember when you first became the leader? You were bossy and arrogant, just like Julie. You never know, she could replace you someday." He grinned at her and drove off with Remy and John in the back.

Julie approached the house, alert and cautious, hands on fire, ready to attack. She saw figures moving around inside and ran up to the door. With one quick, brave push, she opened the door and looked inside.

With the sound of guns loading, Julie shot up her telekinetic barrier once more. Once again, they ran out of bullets, only this time, she dropped the bullets and pulled out her lighter. "You've messed with the wrong mutant." She threw a trail of fire at one officer after another, charring everything in sight. Julie didn't stop until everybody was on the ground moaning.

John saw the fire from the truck and jumped out of it, running for the door. "Julie don't. Stop." He lowered the flames on the furniture and then put them out. Turning back towards her, "What happened?"

"They shot at me so I fought back."

"Julie, they are out cold. Luckily, they're not dead," John told her. Scott and Remy reached the door, glancing this way and that. They looked at what used to be their home; what now looked like a war zone.

"Unfortunately, they are not dead, you mean." She flipped the lighter closed and stuck it into her pocket. "Sorry. I don't know what happened. Just all of the hate and anger in their faces, the faces that were willing to kill a minor just because they were born a little different, all of that just made me so mad I did this." Julie looked around the room. She walked over and gave John a hug, who gratefully accepted it.

John hushed her. "It's okay. We'll talk later."

Scott told them, "We need to clean this place up. John, Julie, go try and put all of the fires out. If you see any other military people, just knock them out and don't kill them. Please, don't kill them. Remy, you start in the kitchen and I'll start here. We'll get this place cleaned up."

**Chapter 12: Welcome Back Old Friend**

A/N: This takes place in the spring after the attack because that was in the winter, now it's spring. Hopefully you know your seasons of the year to at least know this. Kinda corny and cheesy. I don't know much about Angel, so don't be bothering me about it.

Disclaimer: Crap, crap, crap. Kind of like my definition of homework. Check past chappies.

"Hey Jean, somebody's at the door," Deb announced.

Jean told her, "Go ahead and answer it." So she did and it was a shock to them all. It was a surprise to them all.

"Hi Buddy!" Sarah Bailey stepped through the door and said, "My parents got tired of home-schooling me because I was a mutant and because they got dirty looks from people at work because of me."

Julie came walking down the stairs. "Did I hear right? Are the two buddies reunited?" She smiled and gave Sarah a hug. "So, what's your mutation? Official procedure."

Jean got up from the couch and walked over to the door. "Oh please Julie. I'm Jean Grey, and everybody else is upstairs. You'll have to be sharing a room with somebody for now."

"That's okay. I've picked my room buddy!" She through an arm around Julie's neck and continued, "By the way, I can heal people. They have to be like cut; I can't heal them if they're sick. Except, you already knew that Buddy and so did you Julie." She paused. "So, do I have to go to school here?"

Deb answered, "Not anymore. All of the younger students were dismissed after an attack and Julie and Paul are the youngest ones here. This May, all of you but them would have graduated from high school. We decided to give you diplomas anyway because most of you are very bright."

Sarah whispered to herself, "Yes!" All of the other teens came down the stairs after they heard of the new student's arrival. John was first to come down.

Julie introduced them. "Sarah this is John. John this is Sarah. He has similar powers to mine and he's my boyfriend so stay away." She smiled playfully.

Susan was next to introduce her boyfriend. "This is Remy. He's my boyfriend. I'll move out of Julie's room. She doesn't like to party a whole lot." This went on for a while until everybody was introduced.

"Okay! Everybody's sure been busy. Am I the only one without a boyfriend here?" Sarah asked.

Kitty replied, "Nope. There aren't enough guys here for all of us gals."

"Sarah, c'mon, I'll show you to your new room," Julie said. Sarah followed her up the stairs and into their room. "Scott will be bringing up another bed later along with some other furniture. There's a bathroom over there and you'll be fine finding your way around this place."

The newest student asked, "Remember the first time we had to use our powers? The time that Buddy, you, and me had to use them?"

Julie replied, "Sure do. We were going out to somewhere for a fieldtrip and it was raining. The bus slid and started to turn over. I stopped it, but not without getting a scar. My window busted and went right into my arm. You healed me and we got out of the car. The bottom was on fire and kids were trying to put it. Deb told you to go and get all the students away from the bus because she thought it was going to explode. I got the fire down as small as I could and she put it out with a waterball."

"I remember that," Deb walked into the room. "I remember that day real well. That was a week before we left Jules."

Julie told her, "You don't have the privileges to call me that. Two people have the right to call me that; Susan and Whitney."

Sarah said, "You've become quite outgoing haven't you Julie?"

She answered, "Sure have. I took out seven S.W.A.T. members when they broke in. Actually, that time it was six, when we came back it was seven. Shit that was fun. Not that hurting people is fun, but getting to use our powers a lot it fun."

"Remember what I've said. I don't like cussing, so try not to," Sarah told her. "So, how's my Buddy?"

Julie looked at her. "Same old Mrs. Lauer pretty much. She got divorced though, her husband was voting for the mutant registration act which pretty much depleted the love tank. Another change is that I call her Deb now. Everybody does. She hasn't been called Buddy in a while, but I guess since she's not your teacher anymore…"

"Yes…"

"You can keep calling her Buddy and you won't be disrupting a class. That's what you were always worried about. I personally think it's funny that a high school student would be calling her biology teacher Buddy, but that's my opinion," Julie said.

Deb spoke up. "You know, I'm still here! Not anymore though." She slipped out of the room.

The two friends started their conversation back up. "It is. So, what do we do around here?"

Professor Xavier entered the room. "Hello Sarah. Welcome to my school for gifted youngsters. I hope you don't mind sharing a room with Julie."

Sarah replied, "I don't."

The professor turned towards Julie. "There is a new mutant out on the run. I'd like you and Bobby to go pick him up and bring him back here. He's a run away just to let you know. Take your bike, two people can fit on it." Julie grabbed her keys and ran down the stairs.

Julie yelled out, "Bobby! The professor wants us to go pick up another mutant! C'mon!" Lately the two of them had been going alone; Julie would talk to him and if she lit anything on fire, Bobby would put it out. "Let's go!" Bobby came out of the kitchen with a sandwich in his mouth.

"What?" he said with a mouthful of food. "Oh, yeah." He threw away the rest of his sandwich and swallowed what was in his mouth. They ended up at an old abandoned, decrepit building. Three kids who were about their age were inside. "Hey, are all of ya'll mutants?"

A boy with brown hair stepped forward. "So what if we are?"

Julie stepped forward to meet his eyes. "To take ya'll back to our home."

"What if we don't want to?" another boy said. He smiled, proud of himself.

Julie looked at him and noticed he was growing fur. "Trust me, you want to come with us."

A girl stepped forward next. "How about no," she said and blades shot out of her forearms. The fur boy transformed into a lion and lunged at Bobby who just barely got out of the way. Julie flamed up her body and sent the lion flying into midair with her telekinesis. The first teen to speak had disappeared and she was looking for him.

"Blade get him!" a voice in the shadows screamed. Blade, the girl, lunged at Bobby cutting his arm open. Just as she was about to jump at him again, Julie jumped in front of him, getting her shoulder sliced open.

Julie yelled, "Stop this now! We just wanted to take you to a place safe for mutants." A being emerged from the shadows, which turned out to be the first boy. "Come with us if you please." She was holding her shoulder

The lion turned back into a boy. "Shadow?" Blade had retracted the blades back into her arms and repeated what the lion boy had said.

"Leo, are you sure you wanna go?" He nodded and so did Blade. "Fine, only temporarily though. I gotta car. We'll follow you; don't try any funny business either. The only reason we are going is 'cause we're tired of livin' on the streets and because you are mutants. Mutants we may trust, humans deserve no trust at all." All five of them exited the building, each getting into or on their vehicle. "Lead the way." Julie drove off, driving with only one arm. Shadow followed them as he had said he would.

They reached the manor and Julie hopped offer bike, parking it out front. Bobby got off too, wrapping his arm in his shirt, blood showing through. Shadow, Blade, and Leo followed. Julie pushed open the front door, blood dripping down her back. "Sarah! Come here!" Sarah came scurrying down the stairs and saw Bobby holding his arm. "Heal Bobby. He's hurt."

She asked, "What about you? Yours is worse."

"Do his," Julie ordered. Sarah did as she was told and healed Bobby's arm and walked over to Julie and started to heal her. Jean came down the stairs with the professor.

Jean asked worried, "You okay? Scott was right; you shouldn't go on missions by yourself, even if Bobby was with you. You've gotten bruised and cut too many times on these few missions."

Julie argued, "I'm fine. These are the mutants we found at that location." One by one they stepped forward introducing themselves.

Blade said, "Will, I don't want to stay here."

Leo continued, "Neither do I. Shadow, stay here, you haven't had a family in ten years. Thanks for the offer of staying, but we belong on the street." The two mutants left the house and Julie turned to follow them.

Professor Xavier told her, "Leave them. They made a choice, and we cannot change their minds. "Will, you will have your own room." _Sarah, you know which room I am talking about right?_ Sarah nodded. "Sarah will show you to your room." The two of them left and Sarah showed him to his room and then showed him around.

Jean pulled Julie over to her. "Let me see that. Sarah didn't get to finish healing it. Come on downstairs. I'll clean it up. It's still really deep." When they got down to the infirmary, Jean asked, "So what happened."

"Blade was about to slash Bobby's face into two parts so I jumped in front of her. She slashed my shoulder." Jean dabbed it with rubbing alcohol. "Shit! That hurts."

"Like getting your arm busted open doesn't?" She smiled and finished cleaning it. "All done." Jean put a bandage over it and handed Julie a new shirt.

"Thanks. I'm going to go to my room." Julie got up and left. When she got up to her room, it was empty. She pulled out her guitar and started playing. After playing a couple of classical songs, Julie started going into a sort of trance, still playing and repeating. She played until somebody kissed her on the head.

John told her, "You okay?" Julie got up and put away the guitar.

"Yeah, I'm just tired. I'm gonna go out for a while. See ya." She gave him a kiss on the lips and grabbed a notebook and her keys. Julie left the manor that night and didn't return for nine days. Jean finally realized where she was when she saw a news report on a superhero flying around town. She knew it was her because of the flames along the costume and the wings of fire. Julie had become the Phoenix, a superhero out in New York.

Julie was sitting on a roof when a man came and sat down next to her. He had blonde hair and blue eyes, probably about Storm's age. "Hello. What are you doing up here?" He looked at her costume. "I suppose you're the Phoenix everybody is talking about."

"Yeah. I'm going home soon. How'd you get up here? There's no roof access up here," she asked.

"I can fly. My name is Warren and I did the superhero gig for a while." He paused and looked over the edge of the wall. "Is that your bike down there?"

"Yup. You got a last name Warren?" she said starting to smile.

Warren answered, "Warren Worthington III. I'll take you home or at least follow you."

"Too late! You'll have to catch me." She dove off of the building and landed on her bike. Warren threw off his long jacket and flew off, following her down the road until they reached a large mansion. He landed next to her.

He asked, "This your place?"

"Yup." The two of them walked up to the door and Julie opened it. Susan and Remy were on the couch. "Miss me?" Susan hopped up and rushed over to Julie, scanning the visitor.

Susan asked, "Who's your friend?"

Storm came into the room. "Warren Worthington III, never thought I'd see you here."

Warren told her, "Neither did I. I'm just returning your lost student."

"Holy shit! You two know each other?" Julie asked.

Jean came down the stairs, "Angel. He was one of the first to come here, he went to school with us." She walked over to him and gave him a big hug. "Welcome home."

**Chapter 13: New Gifts**

A/N: This chappie sucks. It's total crap and I have had nobody read this part so, be prepared. I'm also thinking of focusing more on Julie, as you can tell I have already started doing that. I'm just tired of trying to include everybody. And to all of the Angel and Archangel fans, sorry because Warren's not going to be a big character. I don't know a lot about him and he'll just be making brief appearances.

A/N 2: Sorry about this. I guess I selected the wrong thing to update as chapter 13. This is the real chapter. Sorry to all who got their hopes up.

Disclaimer: This is the last time I'm going to post a disclaimer. I don't own or am affiliated with X-Men. All of that praise and stuff goes to Stan Lee and Bryan Singer and to whomever else may have helped. I only own the ideas in my own sort of twisted head. Go ahead and sue me, you don't know who I am, and I am only 13 years old. If you actually think I am worth suing, go right ahead.

Scott asked, "We haven't seen you in a while. What've you been up to?" Jean, Scott, Warren, and Julie were sitting in the game room talking. It was probably 1:10 in the morning and everybody else had gone to bed.

Warren replied, "Not much. I've just been trying to live a normal life. Though being a mutant kind of strips you of that ability."

Julie said, "It does and it sucks."

"Well, that's the truth. So, how long have you been here?" he asked.

"Not too long. Probably a little more than half a year, how long has it been since you've been here," Julie asked.

"Too long. I forgot how welcoming and loving this place can be." Warren glanced all around the room. Some great are from here. I was on the first X-Men team. Are you an X-Man?"

Julie replied, "Not sure. I'd rather be going solo. I don't trust people real easily. I may listen and act trustful, but I just can't seem to open up to somebody."

"Reminds me of somebody I used to know. He always thought he was the best and could do anything. He didn't like to work on a team." Warren looked over to Jean and Scott her were asleep. Julie got up and put a blanket over them and sat back down.

"Who?" Julie started stroking his wings. They were so soft, like velvet, like an angel.

"Me. That's one of the reasons I left. I also just needed to get out into the world." He looked at his watch. "I better go. The Angel doesn't belong here anymore. I'll stop by again sometime. See ya later Phoenix." He got up and threw on his coat and walked out the door.

Julie got up and walked upstairs to her room. John was waiting for her. "Hey. I didn't know you were up." She gave him a kiss and a hug and said, "I gotta get some sleep. I'll see you tomorrow." John and Julie went their separate ways and went to bed.

No suck luck for Julie. She awoke to the sounds of laughter five hours later. Julie moaned, "No. Just a little bit longer." Finally she could stand it no more. She got up and took a shower and got dressed. When she reached the base of the stairs, she saw Sarah and Shadow talking and laughing. "So you're the culprits."

Shadow asked, "Culprits of what? We ain't done nothin'."

Julie said, "You woke me up." She looked at Sarah and Shadow closely. "You two have hit it off pretty well, haven't you?"

Sarah replied, "Sure did. How's the shoulder?"

"Fine. Is anybody else up?"

"Buddy's in the kitchen. Logan stopped by for a little bit and was gone again. The professor went somewhere with Storm and Scott and Jean our outside under the big tree," Sarah said. Mrs. Lauer came into the room.

"What's with all of the chit chatter?" Somebody came down the steps. It was John.

"Yeah. You woke me up." He walked over and kissed Julie on her forehead and sat down next to her. "I guess I wasn't the only one disturbed."

Deb said, "Thank God it's Friday, although I'm not sure that it really is any different from the other days since we don't really do anything."

Julie announced, "Actually, Scott said I have access to the danger room. Anybody care to join me for a game of tag, mutant tag?"

There was an echo of, "I'm in," and "Sure." Julie got up and walked over to the elevator. The other's followed.

"Okay. Let's establish some rules." Everybody, Susan, Remy, Sarah, Shadow, Paul, Bobby, Rogue, Kitty, and Hannah was talking. "Okay! Focus people! Focus!"

Deb smiled. "Now you know how I feel or felt."

"That is why I never wanted to be a teacher." Julie became impatient and lifted up a metal rod and threw it to the ground with her telekinesis. "QUIET!" she hollered. "Shut the hell up!" Everybody grew quiet and turned towards Julie. "Be careful using your powers. Hannah, that rod is for you. Susan, I'll be your partner since you don't have an active mutation. Deb, you'll help Sarah since she doesn't have an active mutation either. Okay, let's start. Take your places. Start!"

People were running this way and that, firing water, metal, fire, and anything else. After they were all worn out, they sank against the walls. Remy said, "I am out of cards. I must go and get more." He got up and headed for the door.

Deb yelled, "Hold on. I've got an announcement. The principal at the high school said that you can attend the rest of today and all of tomorrow, if you want. She just wants to see how other students will react to your being there."

Sarah said, "Awesome. When? Tomorrow?"

"Yeah." Everybody started to get up.

"I'm gonna go and get cleaned up," Susan said. "If we can attend for the rest of today, then we only have an hour." After everybody heard this, they all ran towards the door and to their rooms. Sarah and Julie were racing.

Julie yelled, "I'm get the shower first!"

"No you aren't!" Julie won and reached the room first with time to grab her clothes and run into the bathroom. Sarah was banging on the door. "C'mon!"

She yelled from inside the bathroom, "I'll be done in five minutes. Hold on." The shower was going. Sure enough, five minutes later, Julie exited the bathroom dressed. "Your turn."

"Thanks." Sarah got off her bed and went into the bathroom. An hour later, everybody was in the jeep that John was driving, everybody but Julie, Hannah, and Paul that is. They were riding their scooters and motorcycle. The teens would just have three classes, all together, with regular students. Their classes would be biology, calculus, and world history. A couple of the mutants would have IP instead of world history though.

All of the mutants went to their classes with ease, no fighting, no rude faces, and no separation. Sarah, Susan, Julie, and Paul had IP instead of world history that day and the same would go for the next day. Two guys approached Sarah while she was at the locker all of them shared. "Hey mutant! You don't belong here! This is our school and we don't want you here. You're just a piece of worthless crap, just like all of them." The smaller of the two shut her locker and the larger one slammed her against it. Julie had had enough.

"Don't touch her." She put herself between Sarah and the two boys.

The larger one said, "Whatcha gonna do about it?" He threw his hands at her and tried to push her backwards only to have his wrists twisted. "Shit! You shouldn't be that strong."

Julie informed them, "That's not what makes me a mutant. This is!" She flamed up her body. "Stay away from her and the rest of us." The two of them ran like babies. Julie helped Sarah up to her feet.

"You know that Jean's going to give you a lecture about not using your powers like that," Sarah said.

"I know. So what? They deserved it. I'm going home." Julie grabbed her things and left threw the door, speeding off on her motorcycle.

Jean opened the door. "What'd you do this time?" _Don't tell me you used your powers._

"So what if I did? They were about to gang up on Sarah. I couldn't just stand there and let her be beaten up just because she was born different from them." Julie got up and headed for her room, but something was pulling her back. It was Jean's telekinesis. Julie threw her back into a chair with her own telekinesis and finished going up to her room and locked the door behind her. She unloaded her trumpet and just started playing, nothing really, just playing. Soloing. Improvising. She played until dinner time and then just fell back onto her bed and went to sleep, exhausted.

Somebody knocked on her door the next day. "Hey Jules, time to get up if you wanna go to school." Susan opened the door. "Jules? You there?" Julie wasn't in her room and there was a message on her computer.

_Dear whomever,_

_Please don't look for me. I'll be back some time. I'll see you soon. Don't worry and don't look for me._

"Scott! Jean! Julie's gone!" Everybody ran to Julie's room. Her backpack was gone, along with some sets of clothes and her guitar. "She doesn't want us to look for her. Should we?"

Professor Xavier entered the room. "No. Julie said not to look for her. She is almost seventeen and can make her own decisions. We will not look for her." Everybody left, looking upset.

Julie said to herself, "On my own again. Just the way I like it." She set up a fort on top of a roof and threw her stuff underneath it, putting blankets together to make a bed. It was well covered and hopefully waterproof.

Warren showed up on the rooftop. "Heard you left again. Why'd you leave?"

"I don't know. I just wanted to be away, be on my own and prove I can make it by myself. You aren't going to make me go back are you?"

"Nope. You need to make that decision on your own. Just try not to turn out like I did. Running away doesn't always solve problems. So, you going back to the Phoenix?"

"Not sure. I'm not really sure of anything anymore."

John asked, "Do you think Julie's gonna be okay?" Scott was reading the paper and Mrs. Lauer was sipping coffee.

Jean was the only one left to answer. "Warren's going to check on her every once in a while. For some reason she seems more comfortable around him. I just can't figure out why."

He said, "I know why. When Julie was little, she believed in guardian angels. She thought she'd catch a glimpse of her own every once in a while. That's probably why she likes Warren; he looks like an angel." Deb nodded to show she understood.

"Hey Buddy. What's up?" Sarah asked.

"Hi. Nothing much. We were just talking about Julie or the Phoenix."

"Right," Sarah said saying the"i" for a long time. "Anybody else looking after her?"

Scott said, "Just Warren. Man do I have the worst neck cramp." He started rolling his head, trying to loosen up his neck. "That's a little better. If Julie doesn't decide to come back in a couple of days, he'll bring her back home even though we know she'll be pissed off."

Warren and Julie had been talking for a while. She'd been gone for three days. "You know you should go back. C'mon. I'll take you back home."

"I'll go by myself. Thanks for your help." Julie got on her bike and once again rode home. She opened the door and went inside.

Susan said, "This running away thing has gotta stop. It's getting too annoying. You also missed something cool." She disappeared in a swarm of bright lights. "Behind you."

Julie looked in awe. "Shit! That's awesome!"

"Yeah it is. I was in my room and thinking about going to the kitchen to get something to eat. Then _poof_, I was in the kitchen. Well, not exactly poof." Julie nodded.

"Cool. Anything else new?" she asked.

"Nope. Nothing happened except for my other mutation. Nothing like that at least."

"What happened?" Julie looked interested.

"Go check on Sarah." Julie knew this couldn't be good. She jerked right and ran up the stairs to the room they shared.

She asked, "What happened? Are you okay?"

Sarah answered, "I'm fine. The two guys at school came back though."

"What'd they do? I'll kill them. They shouldn't be messing with you or any of us." Hannah and Paul slid past the door, falling down.

Paul said, "Hey Julie! Heard you came home." As soon as he noticed the chat going on he shut up and he and Hannah left.

"Nothing bad. Well, nothing too bad."

Julie asked again, "What happened?"

"They had knives. I just got cut up a little. Shadow came over and knocked em' backwards. It's only on my arm."

"Can't you heal yourself?" Julie walked over to Sarah and looked closer at her right arm. "Did Jean fix you up? It looks pretty good."

"Yeah, she did and no, I can't heal myself. Sucks doesn't it?"

"Sure does." Deb appeared in the doorway. "Hey. What's up?"

She replied, "Do you really have to ask? I'm just checking on Sarah and to see if you really came back home. I'm supposed to keep tabs on you to make sure you don't head off again. Warren is getting tired of bringing you back or getting you to come back. So don't run away again. You can leave in a couple of years." Julie rolled her eyes.

"That's crap. I should be able to leave if I want." Julie got up and walked towards the door. "I need to be able to do what I want, when I want." She headed out the door when Deb put her hand Julie's shoulder. "Don't push it. You're messing with fire."

Deb told her, "Don't even try it. Storm and Jean went out to Boston to pick up another mutant and the professor has once again left. We don't want to keep you in lockdown mode, but please, don't go around trying to be tough and strong. You'll get the crap beaten out of you." Julie continued out the door and headed to John's room.

"Knock, knock. Hey Pyro."

"Hey Phoenix. Welcome home. You pretty pissed?" John asked.

"What do you think?" she replied with a grin on her face. "I'm totally pissed. They're treating me like shit."

John said, "It's because you are wandering off and they don't want you to get hurt. Holy shit! What's wrong with your eyes?" Julie rushed to a mirror and everything started to turn red. When she looked into the mirror, saw only flames. The mirror caught on fire. Quickly, she shut her eyes. "Deb! Fire!" Mrs. Lauer ran into the room and doused the flames.

Julie told them, "All I see is fire. I won't keep my eyes open; I'll just burn something again." She kept her eyes closed and John guided her to the bed. "Go and get Scott. Maybe he'll know what to do." Julie paused and continued, "I'm scared I'm going to hurt somebody." She heard footsteps getting farther and farther. Arms came around her and she wanted to see who it was.

"Don't open your eyes. It'll be all right." It was Deb who was holding her. "When Jean gets back, we can help." The sound of feet came closer and louder.

"Julie, don't open your eyes. I think your mutation is growing to be similar to mine. We'll have to see what we can do to keep those flames from spreading. You are evolving even more." Scott placed something over her eyes. "This should help. It's a bandage. I had to wear one before we found out that ruby quartz controlled the blasts. Something has to be able to block this. Jean called from the jet and said she'll be here in about a day and a half. She'll know what to do. Unfortunately, you will have to keep this on." Julie reached up and touched the bandage that covered her eyes. Somebody pulled her up to her feet.

John said, "C'mon. I'll take you to your room." He took her by the hands and led her to her room. "If you need anything, just shout. I'll go and get you something to eat." Julie sat down on her bed. John left the room and closed the door behind him. She got up and walked over to the closet and pulled out her guitar. She played an old classical song.

Julie heard a noise. "Sarah? You in here?"

"Nope. It's Susan. Nice song."

"Yeah. Music makes me feel better. Sometimes it can actually put me in a trance. Is John coming?"

"He's almost here. He's coming up the stairs."

John said, "Lunch is served. Starting at the top of the plate, there is corn. Going clockwise after the corn there is french fries, peas, and chicken. I'm gonna go downstairs. Susan, will you stay in here for me?"

"Yup." Peas started to float in front of Julie's face. "Guess you don't need any help."

Julie said, "Nope. I just focus on what I want and it floats right into my mouth. I'm fine so you can go downstairs." She continued eating and Susan walked out the door. A half an hour later, they heard a crash. Deb was first to get to Julie. "I'm fine. I just tripped." She got up and continued on her way to the kitchen with her former teacher following her. "I just have to put up my plate." Bobby, Sarah, Paul, Hannah, Rogue, Kitty, Remy, and Shadow ran inside. They were outside having a water fight.

Rogue said, "We just heard what happened. If you need anything, we can help."

Kitty added, "Yeah. We're here for you."

Julie was about to scream. "Would ya'll stop with this babying crap? It's driving me insane! I'm fine. Jean'll help come up with some sort of help." She held her head real tightly.

Paul said, his voice sullen, "Sorry. We were just trying to help."

She apologized. "Sorry, I didn't mean to snap. I've just been getting these really bad headaches. I just get so mad." She set her plate in the sink and turned around. "I'm gonna go back to my room now," and that's exactly what she did.

**Chapter 14: Obstacles and Vacation**

A/N: This may be the longest chapter yet. To all of you Mystique fans, just in case you are reading this, this is sort of for you. I actually have no idea why I've done what I did in this story, but oh well. Enjoy and please REVIEW!

Disclaimer: I know I said I wouldn't post this again, but this is for something else. I don't own any part of Charmed or Disney. I own Disney movies and a love of the television show Charmed, but that's it. For other stuff, read past chappies.

"Damnit!" Julie said. She had just tripped over a chair for the umpteenth time. "Why can't this thing just move?" As you can tell, she was frustrated. Julie flew the chair across the room with her telekinesis. The sound of it shattering into many pieces satisfied her. Jean would be home in an hour or two and she would be able to see again, hopefully.

The door burst open. Jean said in a worried voice, "Are you okay?"

"Hi Jean. Welcome home. Where's John and everybody else?" Julie asked.

"They decided to leave you alone. Let you have some quiet time. Especially since you've destroyed two chairs, one table, and one couch. Bobby went home to tell his parents he's a mutant and John, Rogue, Logan, and Kitty went too," she answered.

Julie said, "So nobody decided to fill me in on this little shindig. Anyways, can you help me see? Is there anything that you could use like Scott's glasses?"

"Yeah. We're thinking some kind of quartz. We'll try ruby and if that doesn't work, there's another kind that I'd like to use. I'm gonna remove the bandage. Keep your eyes closed." Jean took the bandage off and replaced it with glasses. "What do you see?"

"Red. I can see." Five seconds later the glasses caught on fire. "I guess ruby quartz can't contain fire. What's your other idea?"

"Sapphire quartz. Close your eyes again." She took the ruby quartz glasses and replaced them with sapphire ones. "Now what?"

Julie answered, "Blue. Real blue." They waited for ten minutes in silence. "Hey! It didn't burst into flames. So, what's wrong with me? Why is my mutation doing this?"

"Remember when you first got here? When you had to take those tests? Well, we discovered that sooner or later, you might not be able to control your mutation. This is just a new form; when you look at something, it bursts into flames. That's all we can figure out right now. We'll make you a visor like Scott's for missions if you want us too."

"What the hell? Do whatever. Thanks for the glasses." Julie got up off the bed and walked downstairs.

Sarah said, "Nice specks Tex. Dr. Grey make them for you?"

Susan told her, "Yes she did and don't call her Dr. Grey. We call everybody by their first name except for Professor Xavier."

Julie asked, "Who's the new mutant around here?" She heard a poof behind her and turned around, ablaze. "Who the hell are you? And what's with the smoke? It smells like brimstone."

The blue, furry man before him aid, "I am Kurt Wagner, but in the circus they called me the Amazing Nightcrawler!"

"Good for you. I'm gonna go find Warren. I'll be back later." Julie scooped up her keys and walked out the door. She drove into an alley and onto a rooftop where she sat and waited for her Angel.

Sarah ordered, "You two, follow her." Susan orbed out and Kurt teleported after her. They both ended up on the building behind Julie.

Susan offered, "Wanna cookie? I snagged 'em before we left." She handed Nightcrawler one of the two cookies.

"Danke."

"Sie sind willkommen. So, you speak German?" Susan asked.

Kurt answered, "I lived in Germany for a while. Shhh. An angel has appeared next to Julie."

"That would be Warren."

"Hey Warren. Like my shades?" Julie asked.

He looked at them and then said, "Sure do. Look like Scott's only blue." Warren looked backwards and then whispered, "We're being watched. You should get home." Susan and Kurt ducked. "C'mon over here." There was a swirl of bright lights and a flash of blue smoke and the two of them were sitting next to Julie and Warren. "I'll be off." Warren jumped off the roof and flew off in another direction.

Susan asked, "Wanna ride back? Kurt can take your motorcycle. Take my hand and hold on tight." Julie reached up and the two of them disappeared in the same bright lights. Kurt held onto the bike and teleported back to the manor, dropping the motorcycle off in the garage. They appeared in the game room.

Julie said, "Hold on. Let my insides catch up." Deb chuckled from behind her book. "What's so funny?"

She told her, "Nothing much. Nice glasses."

"Thanks. Where'd Jean go?"

"She and Ororo went out to get some supplies for your visor. Scott wants to see your glasses so you should go find him. Hannah and Paul are at the park waiting for ya'll if you wanna play football."

Susan waved goodbye. "Catch ya later." Once again she orbed out.

Julie found Scott in the danger room practicing. "Hey Cyclops. You aren't the only one with shades around here anymore."

Another voice said, "No he's not." Will emerged from a shadow in a corner of the room. "D'you know where Sarah is?"

"In the room I think." In an instant he disappeared back into the shadows. "Like my shades?"

Scott examined them and said, "Mine are cooler, but yeah, they're cool."

"They are aren't they?" Julie asked.

"Don't flatter yourself." Scott smiled and went back to training. A disk flew at Julie and she just reached out and caught it. "Shit! You caught that?"

Julie asked, "So what? My hand is bleeding."

"So? You still caught that. It was going at like a hundred miles per hour!"

She continued, "So what? No big. I'm gonna go find Sarah and see if she can fix this up. Talk to ya later." Julie walked out of the room, wrapping her hand in her sweatshirt. "Oops. Forgot blood stains." Julie reached the room she now shared. "Hey, Guardian Angel, I need some healin'." Sarah came over and put her hands over Julie's. When she removed them Julie said, "Thanks. That'll be your nickname around here or codename. Guardian Angel 'cause you can heal. I'm Phoenix, Hannah's Magnet, Paul's Icicle, John's Pyro, Bobby's Iceman." Julie paused to breathe. "Kitty's Shadowcat, Rogue's Rogue, Will's Shadow, Remy's Gambit, Scott's Cyclops, Logan's Wolverine, Ororo's Storm, and I think Kurt's should be Nightcrawler."

Sarah asked, "What about Susan's nickname?"

Julie said, "We'll call her. I have no idea what we'll call her. I'll think about it tonight. Let's go get Kurt to take us to the park. I don't feel like driving today."

"Alright." Sarah hopped off the bed and followed Julie out the door. "Hey Kurt. Could you take Julie and I to the park?"

Kurt answered, "I would be delighted to." He had a slight German accent. "Hold on tight." Julie held onto one hand while Sarah held the other. They were gone in a poof of blue smoke.

When they got to the park, Julie coughed. "Man that's a lot of smoke." Sarah started to pat her on the back when she shrugged her off. "I'm okay. You gonna join us Kurt?"

"No thank you," he replied and he teleported back home.

Julie asked, "So, are we gonna get the game started?" Paul tossed her the football.

"You're quarterback. No powers," Paul told her. "You and I against Hannah, Sarah, and Susan."

"Sounds fair." The five of them took their places. Paul hiked the ball to Julie who threw it back to him and they scored.

Hannah complained, "No fair. I suck at football."

Sarah mirrored what Hannah said. Susan added, "Short people are good at everything."

Paul and Julie gave each other high-fives. "Short people to the end!" Paul said. He threw a bullet straight to Sarah's face.

"Now that's not fair," she said. "Luckily, Julie caught that." She paused. "Wait, Julie caught that? Thanks Julie." Julie just smiled and returned to her place. "Let's just throw the ball around. Keep the ball away from the midgets."

Julie bellowed, "Midgets?" She and Paul nodded to each other and started kicking Sarah. "Beware of short people. You never know when they're gonna turn." All five of them burst out laughing and just laid down on the grass. After about five minutes of this laughing, they decided to go home. "Susan, can you get us home?"

Susan answered, "All four of you? No way. We'll walk. The school's not too far from here." As they crossed over the sidewalk, a skateboarder bumped into Julie, causing her glasses to fall. Quickly, the nearby grass caught fire and quickly, she closed her eyes. Paul put out the fire and Sarah handed Julie her glasses. She thanked her and they rushed home. People at the park now knew they were mutants.

Julie ordered, "Susan, orb them one by one to the institute. I'll be fine." Susan grabbed Sarah by the wrist and orbed her out. Ten seconds later, she orbed back and took Hannah by the wrist and took her home too. Paul was the last one except for Julie who was nowhere in sight. Susan grabbed Paul by the back of his shirt and got him out of there.

All four of them were breathing heavy in the game room. Deb questioned, "Where's Julie?" Sarah shook her head.

"She disappeared, Susan couldn't find her."

Deb gasped. "No." She ran into the kitchen and grabbed the phone. The students could hear her talking. "Warren? You there? Pick up!" She yelled from the kitchen, "Find Jean! If I know Julie, she's going to try and be tough. She'd gonna get herself killed if she tries to defend herself."

Sarah said, "Worry down Buddy. I heard that Julie took out S.W.A.T. people. She can take care of herself."

"Oh, I'm not worried about Julie. I'm worried about the people she's fighting."

Julie was confused. "What happened?" She had been cornered by people who hated mutants and now she was in the sky. "Warren?"

"Yup. Saw you down there and I couldn't let you hurt those people. They may hate us, but they don't deserve to be burnt to a crisp. I'm taking you home."

"Let me down. I'll walk."

"Can't let you do that. I'm supposed to be watching over you. Anyways, the schools right here." He landed on the green grass.

"You can't keep saving my ass you know. I can take care of myself."

Warren said, "I know you can. I'm just making sure you don't kill any people. That'll ruin your future."

Susan orbed behind her. "Would you stop running off like that?"

Julie answered, "I was creating a diversion. You got away didn't you? Twice I have saved your ass."

She continued, "And twice you have almost had your assed kicked."

Sarah added as she came out the door, "No. She would've beaten the pulp out of them and gotten out without a scrape. But those people. they might not have been so lucky. Buddy worried that you were going to do something stupid."

Deb said, "Yes I was. Let's go inside. Jean and Storm just got home and need to fit you for the visor." Julie ran to the elevator to get to the lower elevators.

Jean told her as she entered the lab, "Don't run. Come sit down and take off your glasses, but keep your eyes closed." Julie did as she was told as soon as the glasses came off, a visor was put on her face. "Open your eyes. This little knobby deal on the right adjusts it so you can use your power. If you need any help with it just ask Scott. Go ahead and put your glasses back on and take the visor up to your room." Julie hopped up and left the room, staring at the visors in her hands.

"Awesome," she said to herself. "Now I can be Cyclops, not that I'd wanna be."

"Talking to yourself?" John was leaned up against one of the walls.

Julie ran and gave him a big hug. "Hey John! I can see!"

"I know. I can see the blue. So, do you see everything in blue?" he asked.

"Yeah. Kinda dark blue, but I guess Scott sees red everyday. I'll just have to get used to it. How was Bobby's place?"

John said, "They didn't take it so well. They said, 'It's just this mutant problem is complicated'. They don't realize how bad we have it. Everybody, everybody rejects us."

She told him, "It's not their fault. It's just." Julie paused to think.

"Everybody hates us."

"No." Deb came showed up in the elevator.

She asked, "What are ya'll doing down here? Come talk upstairs. Bobby started a game of poker." John and Julie ran into the elevator with her and made their way to the next level. "I found you two new players." The three of them sat down at the table with Bobby, Logan, and Paul.

Susan asked, "Why the hell would you play poker? Girls shouldn't play poker. Duh Julie!" Julie ignored her and cut the deck.

As the game continued, Paul said, "I call." He laid out his cards to reveal a pair of sixes and Deb revealed a pair of nines. Logan had a very bad hand and Bobby had a full house. "Julie, whatdya got?"

"I must be the luckiest person in the world. Luckily, we're not playing for real money." Julie showed her hand; a royal flush. "Never have I gotten that lucky. I always loose at poker."

Bobby added, "Well luckily, I didn't lose any money." Logan and Paul nodded in agreement. I'm tired of playing. It's almost eleven."

Jean stepped out of the elevator. "What are you guys doing?"

Susan said, "We were all going to go to bed because of our rough day."

"Well then, Julie, sleep with the visor on. We don't want the school to burn down when you open your eyes or if your eyes open when you are sleeping." Susan laughed.

Julie snapped, "Oh shut up. I'm gonna stop saving your ass." Susan stuck out her tongue and everybody went upstairs to their own room. Sarah was already in bed, reading. "I'm going to bed." She pulled on some pajama pants and jumped into her bed, turning out the light with her telekinesis."

Sarah said, "Do you mind?" Julie flipped the light back on and shoved her head under her pillow. "Thanks." An hour later, the light was turned out and Sarah went to bed.

Julie moaned, "It's about time. Night." Sarah was already asleep. "Damn you can fall asleep fast." Five minutes later, she too was asleep.

Some body was jumping on her bed. "Get up sleepy head! Professor Xavier's got a BIG surprise! C'mon! Everybody has to be down there! Get up! You're the last one to be woken up!" Paul jumped down off the bed and shook her.

"Fine," Julie grumbled from under her pillow. She pulled herself out of bed. The two of them walked down the stairs, both in pajamas. "What time is it?"

Professor Xavier said, "Seven. Sorry to wake you up so early."

John was impatient. "What's the big surprise? I wanna know!"

"We're going on vacation. Somewhere that I know you'll like." He paused to bring anticipation. "I rented the entire place for two weeks. It's in Florida. We're going to Disney World!" Everybody screamed and shouted.

"Awesome! When do we leave?" Kitty asked.

"Tonight. Go and pack. We'll be leaving on a flight at 5:30." The professor's smile was as big as everybody elses.

Kurt screamed above the roar of voices, "Danke Professor Xavier!"

Julie saw Jean looking at her. She knew that Julie had a question. _Did you know about this?_ Julie thought; knowing Jean would pick it up.

_Nope, let's go pack. D'you need a suitcase?_

_I'll just use my duffle and backpack._ Jean nodded and the two of them pushed through the crowd and up the stairs. Julie grabbed her duffle out of the closet and pulled everything out of her backpack and dumped it on the floor. She threw in five pairs of pants along with seven shirts and a pair of tennis shoes. "Gotta take my Birkenstocks." Julie added socks, undergarments, a towel, and a brush and toothbrush with toothpaste. "Just gotta hold it shut with my telekinesis and then I can zip it up." And she did just that. It was squeezed to the fullest and to add more, she tied her pillow to it. She always liked to have her pillow, the pillow she had ever since she came home from the airport in L.A. "Next for the plane." She picked up her backpack and added some books, her CDs and CD player, some gum, oreos, her lighter, money, and a bottle of water. "Hey Jean! I'm done first!" Julie screamed into the hall, dragging her almost exploding duffle and her backpack to her door.

Jean answered, "I'm almost done too. I bet you could fit in this suitcase it's so big." She was zipping it up when Julie walked into the room. "I see you've gotten out of your pajamas. The professor said we have the plane to ourselves because he got are tickets a while back and nobody wants to be on a plane with mutants. So you can bring your lighter because they guess if we wanna blow ourselves up, then there will be two less humans and like seventeen less mutants."

"That's great. They don't care if we're dead. Whoop-dee-doo!"

"Here," Jean tossed her a whistle. "Go get all of them to shut up and come pack. We have to leave at like three and they need to be ready by then. They've got five hours."

Julie ran out the door and back downstairs. She blew the whistle as loud as she could. "SHUT UP!" she screamed so it echoed through the room. "Go and pack. You've got five hours." Everybody shut up and filed up the stairs to their rooms. "That's more like it."

Five hours later, they were getting into three different cars. Scott called out, "We'll meet you at the airport." Jean, Scott, and Storm were driving. Later they arrived at airport, which was completely deserted. "Come on. We have to get our luggage tagged." Everybody got in a line and turned in their luggage: either a suitcase or duffle. After everybody was done, they went to go and wait for their plane. "I thought it would be more crowded."

Shadow said, "Maybe they knew we were coming and didn't want to be here with us. Wait, how do they know we are mutants?"

Storm answered, "Records, tapes, they've all got their sources."

Julie said, "Well that's just dandy ain't it!" She started to flick her lighter and John did the same.

A worker came over to them. "You aren't supposed to be smoking here. There is a designated area down the hall." John and Julie didn't move. "Did you not hear me? You are not supposed to be smoking here."

John looked at her. "These aren't for smoking." The worker got the hint and waddled off. So they talked for a while. Mostly about what they wanted to do when they got there.

A voice came on over the speakers. "Flight 246 is now boarding. Please have your tickets ready. Flight 246 is now boarding. Please have your tickets ready."

Jean said, "Well that's are flight." All of them got up and walked into the walkway thingy and into the plane. Couples sat down together. Jean stood up to make sure everybody was accounted for. "Julie, John, Susan, Remy, Sarah, Shadow, Paul, Hannah, Bobby, Rogue, Kitty, Storm, Logan, Kurt, Deb, Scott, Professor Xavier, and myself. All present and accounted for." She sat down with Scott and the plane took off. In about two and a half hours, they landed and were taken by two shuttles to the Disney World Resort.

Professor Xavier announced, "You can stay at any resort on the premises and do whatever you please. Just be back in your room by eleven at night. Please pick out your room and tell Jean where you will be staying at night. She will give you a key to your room. Don't lose it. Go have fun." Susan orbed Remy, Julie, and John to the Animal Kingdom Lodge after they had each gotten a key to their room from Jean.

Paul, Hannah, Bobby, Rogue, Kitty, Sarah, and Shadow all decided on the All-Star Movie resort. After everyone settled in, it was off to the parks. All of the teens decided to hit MGM studios and meet at Rock'n'Rollercoaster. The adult taste was more of a lounge in the pool type and then have a water fight, so all of the adults decided to stay at the Grand Floridian Resort. Julie asked, "Hey Susan, could you orb and ask Jean if we can use our powers as long as we don't kill anything?" She answered by orbing out and returning ten seconds later.

Susan said, "Yup. We just have to be careful. So, let's get riding some rides. There are no lines! Hurray!" The eleven teens ran into the building and rode Rock'n'Rollercoaster ten times straight. "Oh I'm gonna be sick."

Julie said, "Let's go throw up some and then join the adults in the pool." Susan orbed all of them out. "You okay?" she asked when Susan was breathing heavily.

"I'm fine." She gripped her mouth and ran to a trashcan. "Now I am." They all decided they'd take one of the shuttles to the "adult resort" and give Susan a break. "Cannonball!" Susan ran and jumped into the pool, getting all of the adults wet.

"Susan," Sarah whined. "You're getting everybody wet."

She replied, "Well, uh, duh! It's a swimming pool." Susan looked to Julie. "Oh. Julie c'mon in. Just use your flames or fire or whatever." Julie engulfed her body in fire and dove into the pool. "Hot! Hot!" Bobby and Paul jumped in next, causing the pool to steam and everybody to sigh in relief. The rest of the teens jumped in.

Deb exclaimed, "Hey! You're getting us wet!" She made a tidal wave of pool water and covered the delinquents. Julie returned the favor using her telekinesis. "Wait, I've got an idea. Everybody out." They did as they were told and climbed out of the pool. "Bobby and Paul, create a slide out of ice right across the pool and make it go upside down if you can." The two boys got to work and ten minutes later, they were finished and everybody was shivering. Julie, already knowing what was planned, ran and slid on the ice and splashed into the pool. Bobby and Paul covered their bodies in ice and they too slid on the ice.

"Awesome," Jean said. One by one they lined up and waited to use the ice slide.

Jules said, "Too cold!" She jumped out of the pool and flamed up her body. "Ice gets too cold." She closed her eyes and wiped off her visor, which she wore in the pool. "I'll just sit out." A splash fight started and went on for a while.

John asked, "Hey Julie, you okay? You've been awfully quiet." He looked over at the chairs. "Julie?"

Jean squinted her eyes. "She's near her room, but something's going on. Something bad, but I can't tell what." Susan and John hopped out of the pool and grabbed towels. "Wait. I'm gonna come with you." Susan grabbed hold of John and Jean and orbed to Julie. She was cornered by a janitor.

The janitor, "You stupid mutants! You scared everybody away! Nobody will want to come anymore! I'll get fired!" Julie had her hand on her visor.

"I don't want to hurt you," she told them.

"That's exactly what you want to do. I bet you hate us. Logan had caught up to them. He sniffed the air.

Logan halted Jean as she was about to run towards Julie. "Wait. Something smells familiar." His foot long, adamantium claws shot out. "Wait here." He walked over to the janitor. "Mystique." The janitor transformed into a red headed, blue skinned woman with scales.

"Nice to see you Wolverine."

"Get away from her." Julie chuckled. "What's so funny."

Julie said, "This was a set up. She wanted ya'll to come. She wants to live at the manor. Mystique says that Magneto was too bossy. She didn't want to do something that he wanted her to do."

Jean looked at her slyly as she approached. "And what might that be?"

Mystique answered, "To kill her. She's done nothing to us. All of the other people who have died have done something to deserve death. I used to not care, but I do now. I also have things I need to tell somebody who lives at the school or whatever you call it."

Logan said, "I don't trust you, but I'll give you a week. Don't screw up." His claws shot into his hands and he walked away. "Let's go to bed. Everybody now!" John, Susan, and Julie shot into their rooms and closed the door behind them. When Jean and Logan were out of sight, Mystique knocked on Julie's door.

She answered, "Hello Raven. Nice to meet you. I'm Julie."

"I haven't been called Raven in a long time. Just call me Mystique. Why weren't you against me out there? I just tried to kill you."

"Because. I don't know. For some reason, you make me feel kinda safe. I don't know. Maybe it's because I know your secret."

"What secret?"

"Who your son really is. I won't tell." All of the tension Mystique seemed to be holding was released.

Mystique said softly, "Thank you. Nobody has ever been kind to me. Thank you." She gave Julie a hug, which was not rejected, and left. "I'm not going to stay. I'll see you every once in a while. Good bye." Julie turned around after she left and knocked her glasses off.

"Not again!" She heard flames erupt from somewhere. Her eyes were closed. Julie tried to put it out but caused the fire to grow larger and more rapidly.

Jean was in bed and woke up breathing hard. "Julie!" She jumped out of bed and woke up Kurt. "Julie's in trouble. Can you teleport me over there?" Kurt grabbed her hand and they were gone in a poof of blue smoke. She started pounding on the door. "Julie!" Kurt teleported them inside where fire was everywhere and no matter how much the sprinklers tried, they could not douse the fire. Julie was crouched on the floor, hugging her head. Jean went over to her and shook her. "Julie, get up!" Finally, after numerous attempts, Julie got up and put the fire out quickly. "What happened? Are you okay?" She had passed out against the bed.

**Chapter 15: Evolution Leaps Forward**

A/N: I don't know where I'm going with Julie. Please read and review. Danke!

A/N to teacher: You know who you are. If you've made it this far, give yourself a pat on the back. You've read 12 chappies! Review after you've read it and tell me what you think.

"Uh. What happened?" Julie said groggily. Deb looked over to her.

"Whoa. Lay back down."

"What happened? How long have I been in here?" She laid back down and closed her eyes.

Deb answered, "You know how you put that fire out?"

"Yeah." Julie was rubbing her eyes. Her visor was on.

"Well, Jean has a theory that you over-stressed your body. You've never been able to put a fire out completely. We think your body just wasn't ready to use that much energy. Anyways, right after you passed out, we left Disney World. You've been out cold for three days."

Julie said, "Shit. For that long?"

"Yeah. You've had regular visitors. Everybody was worried about you, especially Jean. She's been in here for thirty-six hours straight, just in case you woke up. I had to take over because she needed sleep."

Julie sat up. "Okay. I'm fine. Don't tell me to lay back down because I won't." Sarah walked through the door.

"Hey Buddy. Hey Julie. Wait, hey! You're awake!" Sarah said.

Deb answered, "Hi Buddy. Yeah. She's awake and as stubborn as ever. Can you go tell Jean she's awake?"

"Sure." Sarah skipped out of the room and made her way to the kitchen. Jean had her head resting on the table. "Jean. Julie's awake."

Jean lifted her head up. "Julie's awake? Julie's awake." She jumped out of her chair and headed to the infirmary.

When she reached the room, Julie said, "One minute, thirty seconds. I win. Anyways, why were you so worried about me?"

Jean answered, "Because you have a lot of potential. You could do lots of good if you wanted to. Anyways, I saw what you could do. I've seen what you can do." She put her hand on Julie's forehead. "Just checking your temperature." She turned her attention to Deb. "She doing okay?"

Deb said, "Very well. She wanted to leave right after she woke up." She tossed Julie a pair of clothes. "Go put them on. You can leave after you get dressed and Jean does one last check up on you." Julie pulled the curtain around the bed closed with her telekinesis and got dressed.

Jean pulled the curtain back when Julie was done. "Put this under your tongue. My hand isn't that accurate." She handed her a thermometer and checked her blood pressure. "Okay. You're all done now. Your temperature is 98.6, perfectly normal." Julie hopped up and ran out of the room, grabbing her lighter, which was on the counter.

She found Susan and Remy in the game room. "Where's Shadow? I haven't seen him in a while."

"Hey Julie. He left. Well, more like disappeared. Catch." Susan threw Julie her glasses.

"Thanks." Julie exchanged the visor for the glasses. "So, what'd ya'll talk about on the plane on the way back? I'm just trying to start a conversation."

"Well, Sarah got mad at Deb because she took her picture when she was lying down. Then, when we were almost home, they started talking about favorites. I heard some interesting things. Deb's fave movie is Dead Poet's Society. Her favorite music genre is classic rock and something else that I didn't hear. Then I fell asleep."

Remy added, "She can sleep through a bomb. I blew up a marble in front of her and she didn't move!"

Julie said, "You sound like my sister. I had to practically jump on her to wake her up and then she beat the crap out of me."

Sarah was walking through the elevator and stubbed her toe. "Oh crap! That really hurt."

"I thought you didn't cuss," Julie mentioned.

"Crap isn't a cuss word."

"Well hell, I thought it was."

"I consider hell a cuss word though." Julie stuck her tongue out at her. "Whatever. John's looking for you and I think he is now upstairs in our room."

Julie ran up the stairs. "Hey Pyro, looking for someone?" John walked over and gave her a hug. "What's up?"

"The sky and you." Julie hit him in the chest, smiling at the old joke. "Kinda crappy, huh?"

"Yeah." John smiled at her.

John gave her a kiss. "I'm glad you're up. I found somewhere fun to go. At nine, meet me in the garage."

Julie asked, "What's the surprise?"

"Just meet me in the garage at nine. So, you want to go get some ice cream?" John and Julie were walking down the hall.

Susan screamed out, "I wanna go! I like ice cream!" She hopped off the bed and joined their slow walk down the hall. "Anybody who wants ice cream meet us out in the front yard!" Susan orbed them out to the front yard. Bobby, Rogue, Sarah, and Kitty exited the institute and ran over to their friends. "We have to wait for anybody else who might wanna come." Scott and Jean came out the front door, hand in hand. Deb followed them to the tree that was shading everybody else. "Speak of the devil, or telepath and other people."

Jean asked, "Are we gonna walk?" Julie nodded. "Alright then." The group of mutants started walking on the sidewalk, starting mini conversations here and there. "So, what's everybody's favorite ice cream flavor?" Everybody yelled out at once. "Timeout. I'll go first. Then we'll go one at a time. My favorite ice cream is strawberry. Scott, you go next."

Scott said, "I like rocky road. Also, who's paying?"

"I'll pay for half and you can pay for the other half. My favorite ice cream flavor is peach. Well, today it is. John," Julie said. "What's your favorite ice cream flavor?"

"Chocolate! Duh!" This went on for a while, passing the torch until the last person answered the question. Deb was the last one to answer the ice cream question.

Deb said as they approached the ice cream shop, which was a family owned business, "I like a lot of different kinds. I'm not sure if I'd be able to decide on one. I'll get mint chocolate chip, since that's probably my favorite. Not the green kind though. I think the white is the best." Julie held the door open to 2B's while everybody went inside. The place was empty except for three or four customers. "I'll have one scoop of chocolate ice cream in a cup."

John said, "I'll have two scoops of chocolate on a waffle cone." They each took turns saying their order and sat down. Julie and Scott stood at the cash register.

Julie handed Scott a twenty-dollar bill. "That should be enough for my share. You pay for the rest." She went and sat down with the others. The nine of them had spread out within three tables. "I paid so somebody has to get my ice cream for me." When the person behind the counter called out the ice cream names, they lined up to pick them up. Scott and Julie stayed sitting and had Jean and John bring them their ice cream. "Thank you John."

Jean said, "Thanks for buying Scott and Julie." She handed Scott his scoop of rocky road on a sugar cone. Jean started looking around, as if searching for something.

Remy asked, "Jean. What are you looking for?" Jean wasn't paying attention to anything. She closed her eyes and placed her hand on her temple."

Scott asked, "You okay? Jean?" The lights started to flicker and the other people started to freak out. Suddenly, they froze.

The person at the register, also the manager, asked, "What the hell are you doing? You wanna start a riot?"

Julie said, "You're a mutant? You can freeze time?"

"Yeah. You got a problem with that? Most of us are mutants in here. All except for them." She pointed over to the frozen people. "Leave now. I can't have my shop being closed up." Everybody got up and started walking toward the door. Scott helped Jean to her feet and the group left the store, ice cream in hand.

Sarah looked over to Mrs. Lauer. "Hey Buddy, you're B-Day is coming up!"

Deb said, "Not for like another month. Julie's birthday passed and we didn't do anything for her."

Julie added, "That's because I was out roaming the streets as the Phoenix. Remember? That was the night that Warren got me to come home."

Kitty said, "Oh yeah. I remember that!"

Jean sent out a telepathic note to everybody but Julie. _On the count of three, throw your ice cream at Julie. That will be her birthday party."_ Julie noticed that everybody was looking at Jean. She knew what was going on. Everybody's muscles tensed up and they spun around, throwing their ice cream right at her. She stopped all of them with her telekinesis, making sure nobody was watching them. Jean yelled out, "Run!" Everybody ran in separate directions and Julie sent an ice cream at everybody, nailing them right in the head.

"Gotcha!" Julie screamed after she hit Jean, the last one to be hit. They grouped back together and continued walking, everybody with an ice cream cone or cup glued to their head.

Susan said, "Okay, this sucks. I'd rather be eating my ice cream than have it on top of my head."

"I agree." Sarah grabbed the cone on her head and threw it into the street. "Somebody probably saw us."

Scott ordered, "Go into the alley. You're probably right." He glared at Julie. "We'll have Susan take us back one at a time."

Julie said, "I'll go first." She ran ahead of everybody else.

Deb asked, "When will she ever learn? Once again, she's probably gonna do something stupid if we get caught."

Julie found herself in a dark and dreary alley. Somebody emerged from the shadows. "Well looky here! Look who's found their way into our alley!" A lion appeared in front of here as well as Blade.

"Shadow, didn't think you'd be hanging around here."

Shadow replied, "This is our territory now. I don't care if ya'll were nice to me. Get out!"

"No." Julie reached into her pocket and pulled out her lighter, ready to fight. She yelled out to the others, "Stay there! Don't come any closer!" Everybody stopped in their tracks. The only one to keep moving was John. "John, go back." Julie flicked the lighter open as Blade shot her blades out of her arms. "Not this again." Leo approached her, Shadow disappearing back into the shadows. Blade sprung at her and Julie erupted in flames. "Don't make me hurt you."

Blade said, "Bring it on. I cut you last time, and I'll do it again. Get out of our alley."

Julie's flames dispersed. "Fine. We'll go. I don't want to hurt ya'll." She turned around to leave. The lion jumped at her and Julie turned around and flung him into a wall. "We're going," she said to the others as she exited the alley with John.

Deb said, "You didn't did you?" Julie shook her head no. "Finally, she turns down a battle."

_Julie, are you okay?_ Jean had noticed that she was very tense. _What's wrong?_

_I've just got that really bad headache again. No!_ Julie put her hands on her head and tensed up. Jean ordered, "Susan, orb Julie home! Now!" Susan grabbed onto Julie and orbed them back to the institute. "C'mon. We have to get home." The rest of them ran towards their home.

Susan asked, "Julie what's wrong?" Julie was huddled up in a corner, eyes closed. Susan tried to approach her, but every time, Julie burst into flames. Jean burst through the front door.

"Where is she?" Susan pointed to the corner. "Her power is growing and I'm not sure if her body can handle it." _Julie, just hold on. Relax._

Julie responded. _I can't. It's too much. I can't hold it back! Jean, help me. Please._ Jean stood back. She watched desperately because she couldn't do anything. She didn't even know of something to do. Everybody stood still, unable to help. _Jean. Please. Help._ Finally, Julie passed out with her body still in flames.

Bobby walked over to Julie and touched her. "She's not hot at all. The fire can't hurt anything. I don't feel any heat coming off of her." He shook her a little bit.

"What happened? No, not again." Julie sat up and rubbed her head. "Damnit! It happened again. I didn't burn anything did I?" Bobby shook his head.

Scott said, "We need to get this under control."

Julie said, "I'm fine. No prob. I'm getting better at controlling it already. I didn't burn anything. I'm going upstairs to work on my computer." Sarah followed her.

"I think you scared everybody."

"So?"

"So you should be more careful."

"Look, I try to be careful. Give me a break. I gotta go ask John a question." Julie found John in his room. "Hey, you still up for tonight?"

John asked, "Better question is, are you up for tonight? I found a cool racing area. Tons of kids go there and they have awesome races."

Julie replied, "I'm in. Garage at eight." She walked over to him and gave him a kiss and a hug. "Thanks for not holding me back."

"Your welcome. Just don't do anything stupid tonight. Please."

"I won't. Don't worry." Julie gave him one final kiss and walked out the door. Paul was waiting for her.

He looked at her. "You know what I'm going to say. Don't go out tonight. Jean wants to run some tests and see how to stop it. Please don't go out tonight."

Julie told him, "I'll be really careful and as soon as I get back, I'll go down to the infirmary. I'll be fine. Remember, I'm the Phoenix and the Phoenix is me. I'll talk to you later." She went back to her room and asked Sarah not to bother her and to stay out of the room. Julie sat in a corner and lit a pillowcase on fire. "C'mon. Go out all of the way." She strained to put it out after she got it down to a small flame. "I need something bigger. Jean! Can you come here for a second!" Jean came into the room five minutes later.

"What happened to the pillowcase? It's ash." Jean stared at the ashes.

"Could you make me something big, real big that will burn for a long time? I need something big to practice on." Julie made a fireball in her hand. "Please?"

Jean looked at her. "Fine, but when you practice, I need to watch. I don't want you burnin' the school down."

"Deal." At 7:50, Julie went down to the garage. John was sitting against a bike she'd never seen. "Hey. Where'd you get the bike?"

John said, "I bought it a couple days ago. C'mon, let's go." Julie slid on her fire helmet, while John put on his solid black helmet. "Follow me." He rode out of the garage with Julie on his tail.

"Miss Grey, John and Julie are leaving the school." Kurt was looking out the window. "Should I follow them?"

Jean answered, "No thanks. I have a feeling that Julie needs to have some fun tonight." She had walked over to the window to see them driving off. "I'll go get them if they get into to much trouble." She walked back over to a couch and snuggled against Scott and fell asleep. "I'm tired. I'll see you in the morning Kurt."

"Good night Miss Grey." He teleported up to his room, leaving blue smoke and the smell of brimstone.

Julie yelled out, "Are we almost there?"

John replied, "Yeah! See those fires over there? That's where we're headed."

**Chapter 16: The Race**

A/N: This is a very short chapter compared to some of the other ones. Just to let you know that this chapter is actually cut short because I want to update chapter sixteen before I put the story on halt. YES! I AM PUTTING THE STORY ON HALT TO WORK ON MY UNDERWORLD FIC! Please review!

Disclaimer: You know the drill. I don't own any part of X-Men except for both movies and the crazy ideas in my mixed up, twisted head. Don't sue.

Julie sped ahead, pulling stunts here and there. John yelled out, "Save it for the race! You'll need it." They finally reached the racing start, which was at the top of an old highway. "Just be careful. This isn't the safest part of town." There were trashcan barrels lit on fire; how much did this make Julie want to glow and win. John and Julie pulled up to what looked like the leader.

He spoke with a deep, husky voice. "Hey little girl, go sit on the sidelines. This ain't no bicycle race for little kiddies."

Julie told him reaching for her lighter, "I'm not a little girl."

John intervened. "Don't Phoenix." Julie understood not to mess with them and not to use their own names. He turned his attention to the leader. "So, what are the rules?"

"Rules are there ain't no rules. We don't care if you get hurt. You're on your own and if you're a mutant, you're pretty damn lucky." John pulled out his lighter, just in case.

"I'll light you. If you try to ride with that thing in your hand, you'll lose." John put his shark lighter back into his pocket. "I'll watch your back. I'll be fine. Don't worry."

"Just don't do anything stupid. We don't wanna have to deal with more crap from Scooter."

Julie asked, "Why'd you just call him Scooter?"

"It's funny." They pulled up to the starting line. It started with a big hill and then had obstacles and jumps along the way. "Guys are hiding behind things. Watch out."

A woman stood at the sidelines, holding a pistol. "On your mark. Get set. Go!" All the riders took off, wheels screeching.

They were approaching the first jump, John and Julie leading. Julie yelled, "Watch out!" A man with tattoos all over his arm and no helmet tried to knife him. She threw a fireball at him, catching his shirt on fire. "Don't mess with the Phoenix. John, don't worry about killing any of these bozos. Half of them are probably gonna be dead by the end of the race. They're going to try and kill us."

John said, "Uh Julie, look beside you." Another man, skinnier and drunker than the others, had a dagger and ready to kill. Suddenly, his bike was pulled backwards and then blew up about ten feet back. "Logan?" He retracted his claws.

"Watch your back out here. This upcoming turn they're gonna blow some dynamite. Stay with me and you'll be fine. Especially you Pyro. Julie can handle herself." The three riders faced forward and rode on. At the turn, two of them separated from the rider with the fire helmet. Logan told her, "Just watch your back. We'll see you at the end." Julie was now glowing with the fire that surrounded her.

A fat guy and a skinny guy pulled up to her, one on each side. "I think I'm hungry for a sandwich. What do you think Earl?"

"I think I need a sandwich," the fat one, Earl, said. The two of them closed in on Julie, who was grinning underneath the helmet. Fire shot out at both of them, knocking their bikes and riders forward into the flames that had erupted from the explosion. As Julie passed through the flames, She made the wall of fire consume that area and become so unbearably hot that everybody would have to turn back.

Logan said, "I think that the Phoenix has finally broken loose."

John told him, "I think that all of that new power just needed to be released somehow. She's become so much stronger."

"Well damn. That's a scary thought. Shit, she might blow this entire place up."

"She won't do that." The two of them rode on, knocking anybody in their way out of their way. They finally reached the finish line where they met Julie who was still in flames. "Well, I guess you really can handle yourself. Feel better?"

Julie said, "Yeah. Let's go home. Jean knows we're out and wants us back home." The three of them hopped on their bikes and rode home.

Logan called out when he entered the institute, "Look what little firebugs I found flying around."

Jean whispered, "Everybody's asleep, well except for us. Whisper! It's 3 A.M. Did you have fun? I saw the fire on the news." She glared at John.

"Sure did have fun," Julie said, helmet tucked under her arm. Jean was still leering at John.

"Wasn't me! Swear to God it wasn't me. It was her," John said pointing at Julie.

Logan said, "Sure was. Damn, she's got a lot of firepower. Anyways, I gotta be going. I'm heading back to Alkali Lake tomorrow, well today. I'll be back." He headed back out the door. "Tell Cyclops I've still got his bike."

"Will do!" Jean turned her attention to the teens. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

Julie went first. "I feel awesome. I don't feel like all of that power is being stuck inside of me. I think I just need to let it out sometimes. But I feel amazingly better."

John said, "She does look better doesn't she? Anyways, I had a fun time. Julie said that you knew we had left right after we left. So, you aren't gonna punish us?"

Jean told them, "No. We just need to find a place that Julie can blow up every once in a while. Maybe the danger room. I'll get to work at making it Julie proof. Now go get some sleep." John and Julie ran up the stairs and stopped at Julie's room.

"Thanks for the fun time. It was awesome. I'll see you in the morning." Julie game him a kiss and went into her room. Sarah was up.

Sarah said, "Nice gash." Julie felt around her back.

"Didn't notice that till just now. Could you do something about it?" Sarah put her hands over Julie's back and they started glowing. A minute later, the gash was gone and Sarah went back to lying on her bed. "Thanks."

"Figured you'd come back with scratches. I'm going to bed now. Good night Jules."

"Night Sarah." She flicked the light out with her telekinesis, climbing into bed. Julie made sure her visor was on and drifted into sleep.

Around three in the morning, Julie was awoken by a scream. She grabbed her lighter and ran out the door after she noticed Sarah wasn't in her bed. Looking around she heard, "Crap, that hurt." Sarah was lying on the floor with her arm over her head.

"Holy shit! What'd you do?" She noticed a big bruise on her forearm.

"I have no idea." Susan and Remy were the next to arrive.

Susan said, "We told Jean we'd take care of it. I don't think she was very reassured. What happened to you?"

"I fell. I think. I don't know. Help." Sarah was still on her back. Julie walked over to her and Sarah tried to sit up.

Julie pushed her head back down to the ground. "No you don't. Ly still. Susan, orb her up to the room and Remy, go and get her some ice." Susan walked over to her and put her arm around Sarah's. They disappeared in a swirl of bright lights. Remy ran into the kitchen to return with a bag of ice. "Never mind. Throw that into the sink and wake up Bobby." Julie ran upstairs the stairs. Sarah had her arm over her head again. "I'll go get Jean. Maybe she can make sense of what happened." She ran over to the room Scott and Jean shared and knocked. "Jean, Sarah fell, somehow. We need you to come run a check up." The door opened and a groggy Jean stepped out the door, slowly.

"What happened?" she said behind a yawn.

"Don't know. C'mon." Julie walked back to the room with Jean following close behind. Sarah was sitting up in the bed with Bobby's hand on the back of her head.

Jean came and sat down in front of her. "Just try and relax." Memories flashed through the minds of both Jean and Sarah. "You phased."

Sarah asked, "I what?"

"Julie, go and get Kitty." Julie got up and ran down the hall. "Phasing, rearranging molecules of yourself or whatnot. You can walk through walls or move through things." Julie returned with Kitty behind her.

Kitty asked, "What's up Dr. Grey? Wow, I haven't called you that in a long time."

Jean answered, "We have a new gift in the mansion. Sarah can phase. I'd like you to help her learn to control her new mutation."

**Chapter 17: Dying Fire**

A/N: This is really, really short. It's just a blurb leading you into the next chapter. Don't sue me for making it so short. The journey is about to come to an end.

A/N2: Sorry for not updating in a while!

Disclaimer: See past chapters!

"Julie. Julie. Are you okay? You were on fire for a second." Susan, John, and Julie were lying outside, basking in the sun.

"What? Yeah, I'm fine. I'm not feeling too hot right now. I'm going to go and lie down inside." Julie sat up and walked towards the house. The two other teens closed there eyes again. The sun bathed their skin.

John screamed, "Julie!" A splash had gotten them wet. He panicked as he watched Julie's body sink to the bottom in flames. "Julie!" The panic-stricken teen dove into the pool, breaking the surface with his girlfriend's body. She was still on fire. "Get Jean!"

Susan shot into the house. "Jean! Help! Please! Somebody!" Scott raced down the stairs, Jean following close behind. "Julie!" Jean knew something was wrong and sped up her pace. The three scurried to John, who was performing C.P.R. on the unconscious Julie, her body still in flames. Pool water splurged out of her mouth, but she didn't wake up. The flames were dying.

**Chapter 18: The Journey Ends**

A/N: Hope you've enjoyed the story! Please review and thanks to all my loyal readers. I've really enjoyed writing this story. Thanks for reading.

Disclaimer: I don't own any part of X-Men except for both DVDs. All that belongs to Brian Singer, 20th Century Fox, Stan Lee, and many other people. I'm not making any money off of this story. It is only for my pleasure and the pleasure of others. Don't sue. Happy?

"No. No. No. This can't happen. She didn't do anything!" John was holding her head in his lap, the flames surrounding her body getting weaker every second. "No. No." Tears streamed down his face as he watched helplessly. The other residents of the Xavier Institute watched in fear, water pushing at the corner of their eyes. "What?" The flames grew larger. "C'mon. You've gotta keep fighting." Julie's eyes flashed open to reveal flames in her eyes, just to be abruptly shut again. "What's happening to you?"

The floor around him had been cleared of furniture; only he and Julie occupied the ornamental rug he was sitting on. John whispered silently to her, kissing her forehead every so often. The sapphire glasses had been removed from her face. The fire flickered back and forth between strong and weak; John knew she was losing her will and strength to fight whatever was happening to her body.

He sat still, watching with sadness on his face. His fellow friends and family had fallen asleep on the nearby furniture. John could not sleep; not while his beloved Julie was on the brink of death. His eyes slowly closed. _No! I can't sleep! What if she wakes up?_ John stroked her hair and lit a fire in the fireplace. Her skin was as cold as ice. _That can't be good._ The flames were once again weakening by the second.

John lifted her head off his lap and onto a pillow so he could try and think of a way to warm her up. He grabbed blankets from everywhere he could find and laid them on top of her cold and lifeless body._She's still breathing. Barely._ Absentmindedly, he laid down beside her and closed his eyes, drifting into a deep sleep, after he said the words, "I love you."

He awoke the next morning, everybody around him still snoring and snoozing. John turned to Julie whose flame was at an alarming low. "No! C'mon! You've hung on this far. Please, don't give up. Please. I love you."

The rest of the mansion had awakened shortly after John. The fire surrounding her body, keeping her alive, was dwindling down, not even shooting back up for a second. Tears streamed down all of their faces once more. Jean whispered, "She can't die. She's too strong. She can't die. She can't."

John was also whispering, only loud enough for him to hear. "Don't, please. You can't die. Keep fighting. You can't do this. Don't do this. Please, don't do this." He cradled her head once more in his lap and he kissed her, one last time.

None of them knew how long she had kept fighting, how long it took for the flames to extinguish. Her death brought them all together, even closer. They cried together, hugged each other, comforted each other. Together, they would face this hardship.

As they lowered the casket into the ground, they all lit candles for the Phoenix's flame. Tears pulled at many of their eyes, many let the water seep out. John read her eulogy, sorrow filling his voice as its end neared. "Julie Brown was a good friend to us all. She led us all and guided us. Her leadership saved all of our lives at least once. She was a part of our family and is a part of our heart. We love you dearly Julie Brown. Her journey is over, but the Phoenix's flame shall burn forever." He walked over to the tombstone and lit the opaque lighter one last time. "This is for you."

The flame shot into the air and formed a large firebird, a phoenix, which soared high in the sky and disappeared. John set the lighter down next to her grave. "You'll always be remembered."


End file.
